important dates for baskerville typeface

IMPORTANT DATES FOR BASKERVILLE TYPEFACE FULL

This happened when a Royal Act made it compulsory for ale taverns to have a sign outside for the official Ale Taster to identify them. Heraldic shields on gates conveyed family names and ownership of property throughout Europe and although signs had been used on inns since the Roman era, the pub sign was officially introduced into England by King Richard II in 1393. Indeed such pictograms continued until the industrial age in western towns and cities due to the level of illiteracy. The sign relic was an artful symbol showing the direction of the nearest brothel painted onto a street corner. I have witnessed ancient signwriting for myself in the Roman town of Pompeii, which (near modern-day Naples) was buried by the volcanic eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. Once shops and services had to be found amongst many different rows of streets, identification of each premise and its particular services became necessary. Using brushes and paint, often with gilding in gold, the art of signwriting is an ancient one, beginning with the rise of towns. Some are elaborate and decorative, others just informative, but for thousands of years, all were hand-painted by signwriters. Signs are everywhere, on street corners, shops, in factories and on advertising hoardings. Text from the Gospel of John written in Insular majuscule by Book of Kells, via Wikimedia Commons

The Irish Gospel, the Book of Kells, has a distinct look and local variations, due to one monk copying the text of another, were exaggerated until a distinct and individual style formed. Using feather nibs cut at an angle, their calligraphy was interspersed with colorful images and hand-painted illustrations, often drawn by different individuals for each chapter.īy around 800 AD a more simplified version had evolved. This included flourishes, ascenders, descenders and overlap of the characters.įrom 715-800 AD, lowercase or minuscule writing was being used by monks when writing their scriptures. Writing on smooth vellums or parchments allowed for more cursive scripts and uncial scripts developed around 600 AD. Lettering from Trajan’s Column by GearedBull at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Original Roman texts only used capital (uppercase) letters. The Roman typeface’s classical origins gave it an authoritative style and meant the font is often used for official documents. Modern typefaces known as Roman are derived from this style of text, with the most famous being the Trajan typeface, designed in 1989 by Carol Twombly and based on the inscription of Trajan’s Column in Rome, which was inscribed around 113 AD. This resulted in serifs-the bits that stick out at the edges of letters-that formed from the use of the chisels. In the Roman Empire (27 BC–476 AD) text on stone plinths or columns was painted on by a signwriter, then chiseled out by a stonemason. Cuneiform writing via Wikimedia Commons The emergence of serifs Later adapted and used throughout the middle east, this form of writing was still in use when the Roman Empire was emerging, with the last known example made in 79 AD. Its distinctive wedge-shaped features were made from the edges of a reed pushed into a wet clay tablet. Overlapping the use of hieratic writing was cuneiform, which was developed by the ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia (3500-3000 BC) and thought to be some of the earliest writing used by merchants. Ancient Egyptian hieratic script via Wikimedia

Hieratic script was written in ink with a reed brush. Later on, a simplified version called hieratic script was developed for official documents. Egyptian hieroglyphs first appeared around 3000 BC, painted onto plaster and then carved in relief, but these were used in religious or royal settings.

In terms of style, early typography styles existed due to the methods used to produce the text. However, many designers now use the terms font and typeface interchangeably these days and indeed, when I was at art school, the term “font” was reserved for the digital version of a typeface. So you could have a Roman typeface in 12 point italic font.

Points are what most fonts are measured in.

Typefaces are the design or style of the letterforms.

Unlike codes or sacred symbols meant for only a few people to understand, written text is for the masses, which means the design and style of the text should be legible and consistent. The important aspect of all writing is that others can understand it easily.

Most associate typography with digital fonts but hieroglyphs, calligraphy and signwriting are all forms of typography.

IMPORTANT DATES FOR BASKERVILLE TYPEFACE FULL

As the style of writing evolved over time, it became an art form and-with different letter shapes and spacing-produced text that was both beautiful and full of meaning. Once we started using symbols to represent an idea, we had invented writing. Typography is the art of arranging type to make written text readable and aesthetically appealing for the reader.

Important dates for baskerville typeface