Kartik Sinha

8/9/2019 Kartik Sinha

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acknowledgement

First, I thank my advisor Prof. Barnali Ray, for her

continuous support in the BSc. program. She was always

there to listen and to give advice to me. She is responsible

for my over all evolution both as a person & a student. She

taught me how to ask questions and express my ideas. Sheshowed me different ways to approach a research problem

and the need to be persistent to accomplish any goal. I also

thank Prof. Malay Das Gupta. Academic Chairperson, Media -

ISB&M, Kolkata, for accepting my topic of research and

further motivating me.

Special thanks are due to my mentor, Prof. Akash Mandal,

for his help with access. He not only taught me the different

DTP softwares and their application methods, but also

helped me in selecting my topic. It was with him that Iexplored the ideas, organization, requirements and

development of this research project.

Last but not the least I would like to pay sincere thanks to

my parents, my friends & my classmates, for their

continuous support and motivation.

Kartik Sinha

BSc-MCAJ, SEM-6

ISB&M, Kolkata


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content

objective of study 4

letterforms 7

signography

calligraphy

typography

typography 8

Physical StructureDesign Style

Function of Type composition

where does it come from 14

application 34

problems related 35

conclusion 38

case study 41

bibliography 42


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Objective of studyImagine a day in the life of an average urban Indian male

living in an apartment by himself. He wakes up early in the

morning to the sound of mobile alarm (which has NOKIA

written above the screen & snooze-stop inside the screen).

He jumps out of bed and switches the TV for some morning

news (and in a bold font appears BREAKING NEWS with the

headlines written). With a brush in his mouth (of course with

CloseUp toothpaste for greater confidence, written in a

flashy attractive fonts), he scans the news paper (for a quick

update while he prepares some breakfast (the fast and

highly nutritious Kelloggs). After a warm bath (with Dettol

soap - for greater skin protection and Head and Shoulders

Shampoo so that he is never embarrassed because of

dandruff), and a cool shave (with the very cool Gillette

Shaving foam as shaving cream is out and shaving foam is

in, and the Mac3 - for the closest shave), he bathes hischeeks with an after shave (Old Spice for that macho

feeling). He dashes off to work (whizzing past posters,

billboards, hoardings all bombarding him with different

messages, schemes, offers etc. written in their unique font

type and their design). His bus and train journey are never

boring as he always carries the latest India Today to keep

him abreast of the latest happenings. He is on the field

working when he feels thirsty (but he cannot make up hismind whether to have a Thumps up as he is grown up,

or to have a Pepsi because he wants to live young

forever; any way he decides to play safe and have a

Bisleri). His mobile suddenly buzzes. Its a programmed


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call, reminding of his date. He realises he is late. At the

shopping center close by he buys his date a card (an

Archies Im sorry Card of course, because no one can say

it better than Archies). Obviously his date reacts as she is

expected to by giving him a hug (just like the ad). After the

great date they return home. After some TV snacking, he

sets the mood with some soft music, spruces himself (any

guesses with what?) yes with the sexiest, irresistible, AXE

deo spray). And the lights go out. (Hey wait a second; I

forgot to mention the extra soft. Kurlon mattress he had

recently purchased thanks to the special Diwali offer). That

was Media and Advertisings influence for you. And yes the

way these brands and products name are written. I guess

even while reading this write up you must have remembered

their typefaces & its style of writing. Now this is the power of

TYPOGRAPHY.

Today humans are surrounded from typography from every

corner, once you open your eyes you will see different

typefaces everywhere. In every advertisement today, the

first thing to be noticed is that the ad contains much textand that the appearance of the text blocks differs greatly.

I selected this topic Typography as a means of

communicationbecause I have always been fascinated by

the flamboyant impact typefaces leaves in mind when

communicated correctly, its wide variety of application and

usage and also misconception & problems related to it. So I

wanted so dig deep into incite of the real meaning and soul

of typefaces for my personal knowledge.


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Calligraphy

Typography


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letterforms

Broadly there are three letterforms used for communication:

Signography: These letterforms are drawn, painted &

fabricated. The term signography is derived from sign

writing. Various instruments such as paints, brushes, scales

& knives may be used to develop the letters on various

surfaces.

Calligraphy: It is a type of visual art. It is often called the

art of fancy lettering. It is the art of giving form to signs inan expressive, harmonious and skillful manner "calligraphy

ranges from functional hand-lettered inscriptions and

designs to fine-art pieces where the abstract expression of

the handwritten mark may or may not compromise the

legibility of the letters. Normal pens, brushes & ink are used

to write these letters.

Typography: It is the art and technique of arranging type,

type design, and modifying type glyphs. Type glyphs are

created and modified using a variety of illustration

techniques. The arrangement of type involves the selection

of typefaces, point size, line length, leading (line spacing),

adjusting the spaces between groups of letters (tracking)

and adjusting the space between pairs of letters (kerning).

Typeface is the image of letter we get on paper. Since

Signography & Calligraphy letterforms are drawn by hands,they are not standardized. Typography letterforms arestandardized as they are made from moulds, stencils or

grids. These letters appear the same on pages many times

they are printed.


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typographyTypography is a beautiful group of letter

Not a group of beautiful letters

STEVE BYERS

Typography comes from the Greek words typos ("mark or

figure") andgrapho ("I write").

Typography is performed by typesetters, compositors,

typographers, graphic designers, art directors, comic bookartists, graffiti artists, and clerical workers. Until the Digital

Age, typography was a specialized occupation. Digitization

opened up typography to new generations of visual

designers and lay users. Typography has long been a vitalpart of promotional material and advertising. Designers

often use typography to set a theme and mood in an

advertisement; for example using bold, large text to conveya particular message to the reader. Type is often used to

draw attention to a particular advertisement, combined withefficient use of color, shapes and images. Today, typography

in advertising often reflects a company's brand. Fonts used

in advertisements convey different messages to the reader;

classical fonts are for a strong personality, while more

modern fonts are for a cleaner, neutral look. Bold fonts are

used for making statements and attracting attention.

Typography can be further divided into three parts:

(i) physical structure, (ii) aesthetics of typography which

comes from various design style, and (iii) functions or

readability.


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Physical Structure

One needs to understand some common features and the

basic differences between type body, typeface and font to

avoid confusion in professional handling of typography.

i. Type body: The concept of type body comes from the hotmetal type in which all the images are in rectangular

blocks, different in width but identical in height. If these

blocks are arranged side by side, they will make words.

The letters on it form a mirror image. And its impact on

the paper leaves the impression of the letter.

ii. Typeface: It is the portion of the type body that receivesink and makes contact with the paper. It can also bedefined as the design of letter characters with consistentvisual properties which relate to the strokes of the letters

of different strokes. Times and Arial are typefaces. Strictly

speaking, Times Regular and Times Bold are different

typefaces, but theyre part of the same typeface family.

Even though the font files are different, the typeface the

designis the same. Some strokes of an alphabet are in a

consistent size. This is known as the X-height of the

letters. The main stroke of lowercase letters is within thisheight. Some letter strokes that extend above & dropbelow the X-height are called ascenders & descenders,

respectively. It refers to the size of this invisible,

imaginary body.


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iii. Font: It provides for displaying a set of symbols throughwell defined shapes for each symbol. The symbol is a

generic concept and the font is an instance of specific

representation of a set of symbols. Fonts were created by

craftsmen & artists during the days of printing machinesthat used movable type faces. Today, fonts are created by

artists & designers who work with computer based

characters. A font can contain characters of many sizes

and several variations of the basic family shapes. Type

face & font are often used synonymously. Different types

of fonts generally used in DTP softwares are PostScript

fonts, TrueType fonts &OpenType fonts.

Design Style

Typefaces are available in thousands of design variations,

especially Roman characters. In order to facilitate

identification and to use these faces suitably in design, the

faces can be divided into four groups. These groups are

based on the basis of the strokes of characters & gradual

development of faces, which evolved into a style.

Face groups

Classical Linear Fancy Handwritten

Text Roman

Square Serif Sans Serif

Decorative Novelty

Script Cursive


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Function of Type composition

Text is composed to create a readable, coherent, and

visually satisfying whole that works invisibly, without the

awareness of the reader. Even distribution of typesetmaterial, with a minimum of distractions and anomalies, is

aimed at producing clarity and transparency.

Choice of font(s) is the primary aspect of text typography

prose fiction, non-fiction, editorial, educational, religious,

scientific, spiritual and commercial writing all have differing

characteristics and requirements of appropriate typefaces

and fonts. For historic material established text typefaces

are frequently chosen according to a scheme of historicalgenre acquired by a long process of accretion, with

considerable overlap between historical periods.

Contemporary books are more likely to be set with state-of-

the-art seriffed "text Romans" or "book Romans" with designvalues echoing present-day design arts, which are closely

based on traditional models such as those of Nicolas Jenson,

Francesco Griffo (a punch cutter who created the model for

Aldine typefaces), and Claude Garamond. With their more

specialized requirements, newspapers and magazines rely

on compact, tightly fitted seriffed text fonts specially

designed for the task, which offer maximum flexibility,

readability and efficient use of page space. Sans serif text

fonts are often used for introductory paragraphs, incidentaltext and whole short articles. A current fashion is to pair

sans-serif type for headings with a high-performance

seriffed font of matching style for the text of an article.

Readability is primarily the concern of the typographer orinformation designer. It has several aspects. The first is the

writers idea. The second is the language. The third is the

construction of sentences. Compound and complex

sentences, unfamiliar words, improper punctuation & long

paragraphs reduces readability. The fourth is the readers


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interest. And fifth is the legibility of type composition.

Designers are mainly involved in this part.

Legibility is primarily the concern of the typeface designer,

to ensure that each individual character or glyph isunambiguous and distinguishable from all other characters

in the font. Legibility is also in part the concern of the

typographer to select a typeface with appropriate clarity of

design for the intended use at the intended size. An exampleof a well-known design, Brush Script, contains a number of

illegible letters since many of the characters can be easily

misread especially if seen out of textual context.

Legibility refers to perception and readability refers tocomprehension. Typographers aim to achieve excellence in

both.

Apart from these, there are other things which affect thefunction of type composition like: the matter of uppercase &

lowercase letters, letter spacing, word spacing, line spacing,

paragraph spacing, line length, etc.


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Where does it come from?We see it every day on signs, billboards, packaging, in booksand magazines; in fact, you are looking at it now the

Latin or Roman alphabet, the worlds most prolific, most

widespread ABC. Typography is a relatively recent invention,

but to unearth the origins of alphabets, we will need to

travel much farther back in time, to an era

contemporaneous with the emergence of (agricultural)

civilisation itself.

We will begin where civilisation began, meander through theMiddle Ages, race through the Renaissance, and in doing so

discover where our alphabet originated, how and why it

evolved, and why, for example, an A looks, well, like an A.SUMER

Cuneiform

The Sumerians began to experiment with writing at the close

of the fourth millennium BC, in Mesopotamia between the

rivers Tigris and Euphrates (roughly modern-day Iraq). Like

most writing systems, Cuneiform, initially scratched later

impressed by a stylus into soft clay, started out as a

series of pictograms pictures representing words. The

word for bird, for example, existed at first as a simple

pictorial representation of a bird. The figure below

demonstrates this process of abstraction or rationalization.In time, the pictures of things came to represent, not only

things but, sounds. It is clear that a written language with

signs that represent sounds requires fewer characters than a

language in which a sign stands for a thing or an idea. We

use 26 letters (and the Romans used only 23 to create some

of the most outstanding literature the world has ever


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known) while the Chinese, for example, have to learn

thousands of characters to express themselves. Even early

cuneiform comprised some 1,500 pictograms.

1.1 The pictographic origin of Cuneiform.

Figure 1.2 is an example of Proto-Cuneiform, one of the

earliest examples of writing know. Its a form of Cuneiform

that exists between the earliest purely pictographic forms

and the later more abstract forms.

1.2 Proto-Cuneiform. Subject: beer rations.

While the Sumerian language ceased to be spoken after

about 2000 BC, the influence of its written form (Cuneiform)

is still felt today. The Sumerian language was mostly


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replaced by the language of their Akkadian conquerors who

did, however, adopt the Cuneiform signs of the Sumerians.

Figure 1.3, shows the Cyrus Cylinder, recounts the fall of

Babylon in 539 BC (Daniel 5 in the Old Testament) to the

Persians led by king Cyrus.

1.3 Cyrus Cylinder (Akkadian cuneiform), 6th century BC.

EGYPT

The writing of the gods

The Egyptians developed a similar system of pictograms.

Hieroglyphic inscriptions (literally sacred carving), like

Cuneiform started out as pictograms, but later they were

also used to represent speech sounds.

2.1 Egyptian hieroglyphs.


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The Egyptian pictographs evolved into a cursive style called

hieratic that was freer, written more rapidly and contained

numerous ligatures.

2.2 Hieratic script, 12th Dynasty.

A yet later form is demotic, which represents the most

abstract form of Egyptian hieroglyphs. Although written

mostly in ink on papyrus, the most famous example is to befound on the granite Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta Stone (196

BC), found by scholars who had travelled to Egypt with

Napoleon in 1799, is important because it was the key to

deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. It is written in two

languages, and three scripts: two forms of Egyptian

(hieroglyphic & demotic), with a Greek translation.

2.3 Demotic script, 3rd century BC.

The story of the alphabet continues in Egypt during the

second millennium BC, but the Egyptians are not its authors.


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THE FIRST ALPHABETS

Wadi el-Hol

Until the discovery of two inscriptions (graffiti) in Wadi el-

Hol, Egypt, in 1999, it was generally held that the

beginnings of alphabetic scripts could be traced to around

1600 to 1500 BC, to the Phoenicians, a people of traders

who lived on the coast of todays Lebanon and Israel.

However, the 1999 discovery reveals that, rather than the

early Semitic alphabet being developed in their homeland of

Syria-Palestine, it was instead developed by the Semitic-

speaking people then living in Egypt. This strengthens the

hypothesis there must have been ties between Egyptianscripts and their influence on those early Semitic or proto-

Sinaitic alphabets. Moreover, it pushes back the origin of the

alphabet to between 1900 and 1800 BC.

In the photograph of Inscription 1 from Wadi el-Hol below,

the sign highlighted in red (hover over to see) is of an Ox

head (aleph) the origins of the Latin A, and a letter with a

long history early Sumerian cuneiform also uses the Ox as

a sign.

3.1 Inscription 1 from Wadi el-Hol. Written right to left.


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By about 1600 BC in the region between the two dominant

writing systems of the time, Cuneiform and Egyptian

hieroglyphs, we see the emergence of other more

systematised alphabets like ugaritic script (14th century BC)

that developed in what is today Syria. The ugaritic scriptemploys 30 simplified cuneiform signs. And thus begins the

story of the alphabet.

3.2 Abecedary from Ugarit.

PROTO SANAITIC

At the same time as the short-lived ugaritic script was being

developed (an alphabet adapted from Cuneiform), another

alphabetic system emerged that was influenced by Egyptianhieroglyphs. This proto-Sinaitic alphabet of consonants was

pictographic, yet each pictograph represents a sound rather

than a thing or idea. It is this proto-Sinaitic alphabet that

really marks the starting point, the root of numerous

modern-day alphabets, from Arabic and Hebrew to Greek

and Latin.


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4.1 Proto Sinaitic script, c. 1500 BC.

Note the difference between the signs of Inscription 1 from

Wadi el-Hol (figure 3.1), and those of the proto-Sinaiticscript (figure 4.1). The latter are just a little more abstract.

Note especially A (aleph), which has a simplified ductus(fewer strokes). Note too the simplified stick figure,

representing a person at prayer. Cut off the torso and the

head, rotate whats left, and you will see in it the origins of

the Latin E:

4.2 The evolution of E (see also figure 4.1 above).

But how and why did this alphabet of pictographs evolve intoa series of abstract symbols? Mark-Alain Ouaknin, in

Mysteries of the Alphabetsuggests that the answer is to be

found in the transition from polytheism to monotheism:


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THE PHOENICIANS

The Purple People

While the invention of writing itself could never have

progressed without a highly structured and even

authoritarian state to back it up, the coming of the modern

alphabet is a completely different story. Written in

Cuneiform we have the wonderful adventures of Gilgamesh

and his companion Enkidu, but most of the clay-tablets from

the agricultural city-states are more mundane: lists,

taxation, and commercial transactions.

6.1 Phoenician inscription, late 11th century BC.

The Phoenician alphabet was probably developed for quick

and easy to read notes that a merchant would make on his

trips along the ports of the Mediterranean. The Phoenicians

are now best-known for their terrible god Baal, to whom

children were sacrificed in an enormous cast iron stove.

To this day, not all alphabets have letters to represent

vowels. Hebrew and Arabic are the best known examples.

This simple and ingenious modern alphabet of consonants

from which the last vestiges of pictograms had been erased,


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is indeed a merchants instrument: easy to learn, to write

and to adapt.

6.2 Phoenician alphabet

GREEK

Enter the vowel

Although the earliest extant Greek inscriptions date back to

the 8th century BC the first Olympic Games were held in

776 BC many scholars think that the Greeks adopted the

West Semitic Script (the Phoenician consonant alphabet)three centuries earlier. For a long time (at least until the

widespread adoption of Ionian script in the fourth century

BC), the Greek scripts followed no fixed direction, being

written left to right, right to left, and in horizontal

boustrophedon. (Braille is set boustrophedonically; relating

to writing alternate lines in opposite directions.)


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7.1 Greek Papyrus of Artemisia, 3rd century BC.

In Greek scripts we witness the jettisoning of pictographicforms in favour of abstract, linear forms. Based on

comparisons of late Phoenician alphabets and archaic Greek

scripts (and Greek tradition; e.g. Herodotus) it appears that

the Greeks simply adopted most of the Phoenician signs but

added the vowels that the Phoenicians had left out.

7.2 Greek inscription from Thera, 8th century BC.


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ETRUSCAN

The Etruscans came to Italy from western Asia Minor

(modern-day Turkey). From about 750 BC, the Greeks, as

far north as Naples, were settling in Italy. They were amongthe first imitators of Greek vases which they often decorated

with phoney Greek inscriptions.

One of the last known speakers of the Etruscan language

was the learned emperor Claudius who wrote a dictionary

now lost. To this day no-one has deciphered the Etruscan

language, yet in classical times it was known for its great

literature, unfortunately none of which has survived.

Not only did the Etruscans adopt much of the art andreligious rites of the Greeks, but, most importantly for our

story, they adopted the Greek alphabet. Rome may not have

been an Etruscan town but the Roman kings were Etruscans.Within a few centuries the Roman Republic became the

master of Italy and absorbed the Etruscans completely.

8.1 Abecedary from Marsiliana, Etruria, ca. 700 BC.

However, their alphabet survived and prospered as it spread

over the world with the expansion of the worlds mistress,

the mighty Roman Empire.

LATIN

Musical chairs & the tale of Z

The Latin alphabet that we still use today was created by the

Etruscans and the Romans from the Greek. It had only 23

letters: the J, U and W were missing. The J was represented


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by the I, the U was written as V and there was no need for

a W. The story of the Z is particularly interesting.

The new letter G (based on C) was added; Z was borrowed

from the Greek, and then dropped as Latin had no need forit. G took its place in the line-up, until a little later when the

Romans decided they needed the Z (when Greek literature

became the vogue and they started to introduce many

Greek words), they re-introduced it, but since its spot hadbeen taken by G, it was sent to the back of the alphabet,

where it remains to this day.

9.1 Detail from Trajan inscription, ca. 114 AD.

RUSTIC CAPITALS

From the square Roman capitals (preserved on the plinth of

Trajans Column (114 AD), developed the freer-form and

slightly more condensed Rustic capitals.

10.1 Rustic Capitals, ca. 4th century.


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Uncial & Half Uncial

The lowercase makes its entrance

Most writing was of course done on papyrus and on walls,

informal and quick. The cursive was the letter that Martialis

read aloud to his friends when he recited his poems at night.

This was a letterform that could be jotted down quickly with

a reed pen dipped in ink. The old cursive is difficult to read

but the new, that evolved from the 4th century onwards

resembles our own writing. It spawned the much later

Carolingian minuscule letter the Adam & Eve of all

printing types used today. The second great invention, the

codex, came at the same time. While the Romans usedscrolls made of papyrus, in the fourth century somebody had

the idea to cut parchment into oblong pieces and sew them

together thus creating the first random-accessible book.

Together with the eminently readable script this must be

considered one of the greatest inventions of all time.

11.1 Uncial, France, 7th century.


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11.2 Left: Insular, England, 8th century. Right: Visigothic,

Spain, France, 9th century.

In France, Merovingian; Visigothic in the Iberian Peninsula

(figure 11.2); the Beneventan (figure 11.3) in Southern Italy

(which shows features of the Half-Uncial, and late Roman

Cursive; and in England and Ireland, the Insular forms

(figure 11.2).

11.3 Beneventan script, ca. 1100.


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Carolingian to Gothic

An Emperor and a Yorkshireman

The anonymous author ofCarmen de carolo Magno refers to

Charlemagne as the venerable head of Europe and the

father of Europe. Though thats something of an

exaggeration, Charlemagnes influence was substantial and

long-lasting, and he succeeded in uniting most of Western

Europe for the first time since the Roman Empire. A man

obsessed with bringing order to his expanding kingdom, he

sought reform in just about every sphere. For our story his

most important reform concerns his efforts to reform

writing. Though efforts were already under way, he gave the job to a Yorkshireman, Alcuin of York. Alcuin strove for

clarity and uniformity. These efforts, with the backing of

Charlemagne and the Church, brought about the Carolingian

minuscule (or Carolingian script).

A beautiful, legible book hand; long ascenders and

descenders, letting in light between the lines, open and

round letters with few ligatures and variant letterforms. The

early Carolingian scripts share some features with the

Roman Half-Uncial (the club shape head serifs on theascenders ofb, d, h, and l, by the 11th century these were

replaced by triangular serifs, similar to those we see in

numerous roman typefaces of the incunabula (latter half ofthe 15th century). The early, rounder a was dropped in

favour of one similar to that found in early Roman Uncials.

In manuscripts penned in this hand, it is not uncommon to

see the r with a descender.

With Charlemagne and the Church behind it, the Carolingianscript quickly spread across Europe, deposing a multitude of

regional scripts on its way. By the second half of the tenth

century, Carolingian script had reached England, replacing

late forms of the insular script; in Spain it replaced

Visigothic.


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That the open forms of the Carolingian script were replaced,

from the 12th century, by the darker, more condensed,

angular, ligature-ridden, closed forms of the Gothic scripts

is, as Delorez writes, one of the mysteries of history.

Perhaps a partial explanation is to be found in the new

Gothic aesthetic that was sweeping Europe.

12.1 Left: Late Carolingian script, between 1033 & 1053.

Centre: Pregothic script, mid-twelfth century. Right: Gothic

script (Textualis Formata), between 1304 & 1321.

12.2 Left: Tironian et in this detail from a 14th centurymanuscript, written in Textualis Formata. The first example

in the first line: Arbres et fleurs et ce que orne. Right:

Detail from Gutenbergs 42-line Bible, ca. 1455. Note the

tironian et on the last line.


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From the beginning of the 12th century the tironian et (still

used in Irish to this day) began to replace the et ligature, or

ampersand. It wouldnt make a comeback until the later

Humanist scripts, models for the first roman typefaces.

Roman

Enter typography

The typographical medium could hardly hold more of theItalian Renaissance, the intense admiration for the classical

precedent in the capitals, the humanists love of clarity and

grace in the small letters. Harry Carter, p.71 (on Jensonsroman type).

Printing and 15th century humanism are closely related, and

since the humanist philosophers and philologists (literally

lovers of words, meaning they loved classical Latin)

reintroduced classical Latin as the lingua franca of their

class, it is no wonder that the first roman alphabets of the

earliest printers only used the 23 letters of the classical era.

The J was added later. The first J in print was probablymade in Italy, early in the 16th century; the written form

was first used in the Middle Ages, in France and theNetherlands. The W is a letter not known to the Latins but

used often in the vernacular languages of the west. Well into

the 17th century it was set in type as VV, but you will also

find two Vs that have been cut down and joined to form a

W.


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13.1 Left: Early roman of Sweynheim & Pannartz, Rome,

1469. Right: Jenson, Venice, 1472.

We stand in the 17th century, some 5,000 years after the

Sumerians set stylus to clay. We now have a dual alphabetof 26 letters, uppercase and lowercase forms. There is

hardly a straight line to be seen in the history of the

alphabet. No Darwinian progress there, no survival of the

fittest. Many of the aforementioned scripts developed side-

by-side, some disappeared and reappeared, some can be

shown to be the product of the mind of one man like Alcuin

of York. And we do not know what would have happened if

Hannibal had marched straight to Rome after winning the

battle of Cannae instead of loitering.

Putting the pieces together

Writing and alphabets evolve for a number of reasons. The

regional and national variations developed, their success, in

part at least, owed to political and geo-political factors: A

victorious invader brings its culture, including its language,

both spoken and written. Context is also an importantfactor: text cut in stone contemplating the deeds of

emperors is something different than an advertisement for a

brothel scratched on a wall in Pompeii. The substrate, orwriting material (whether clay, stone, wax tablets, wood,

metal, papyrus, parchment, or vellum; and the writing


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implement, a reed, chisel, quill, broad nib pen they all

affect the form the alphabet takes. The speed of the hand is

another factor. As an interesting exercise, write the capital

alphabet,

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

slowly and deliberately in your best hand. Now write it

again at twice the speed. Finally, write it as quickly as you

possibly can. The rapid hand introduces a reduced ductus

(fewer strokes), and fewer pen-lifts, with those neat capital

letters of the first round turning into something freer, more

cursive. You can then further evolve your letterforms by

using the most rapidly written alphabet, and begin torationalise it, adjusting the proportions, altering the shading

(contrast), and the result is an entirely a new hand.

14.1. A brief history of A.


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applicationIn contemporary use, the practice and study of typographyis very broad, covering all aspects of letter design and

application. These include:

typesetting and type design,

handwriting and calligraphy,

graffiti,

inscriptional and architectural lettering,

poster design and other large scale lettering such as

signage and billboards,business communications and promotional collateral,

advertising,

word marks and typographic logos (logotypes),apparel (clothing),

labels on maps,

vehicle instrument panels,

kinetic typography in motion picture films and

television,

as a component of industrial designtype on householdappliances, pens and wristwatches,

as a component in modern poetry (see, for example,

the poetry of E. E. Cummings).

Since digitization, typography has spread to a wider range of

applications, appearing on web pages, LCD mobile phone

screens, and hand-held video games. The ubiquity of type

has led typographers to coin the phrase "Type is

everywhere".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashboardhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashboard


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problems relatedTypographic decision-making begins when children start towrite, although most children today also encounter DTP

software from a very early age at school as well as in the

home.

The use of DTP in schools as part of the writing process has

the potential to provide emphasis to typographic

organization. In publishing their documents, children are

already being asked to consider how it might be used and by

whom, to write with a specific purpose in mind through aprocess that includes drafting and editing. They are also

asked to consider what would be an appropriate appearance

for the finished document as it is commonplace for childrento be asked at school to produce newspapers, magazines,

leaflets, advertisements, etc., as a means of exploring

various ways of organizing text.

The problem is that for children, their general awareness of

typography stems from what they are conscious of seeing:what attracts their eye in the environment of the street and

shops, on advertising boards, shop fascias, and on

packaging, rather than the typography they read every day

in newspapers, magazines, and books. For a child looking for

ideas to help in the design of, for instance, a newspaper

much of what attracts the eye is inappropriate. And even if

newspapers were available in the classroom (and one must

assume that in such circumstances they would be), these

would require a considerable amount of detailed analysis tobe of any real benefit. Teachers are given very little

guidance about the potential of visual organization to

enhance the meaning of text, let alone the finer points of

typography.


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With all the current emphasis on technologies, one needs to

be constantly reminded that typography is an essential and

powerful force for increasing communication effectiveness.

That is its essential role. Improved technologies are only

means towards that end.

On the community bulletin board of every village, there will

be homemade notices and posters. Most amateur

community notices and posters today are produced digitally,and yet, despite the dramatic change of tools and processes,

the design of such notices remain remarkably similar to the

hand-drawn versions of the 1960s or 1970s: the use of

underlining, prodigious use of capitals, important words set

at a diagonal, and emphasis provided for key points by theuse of speech bubbles or boxes.

The persistent use of underlining is particularly interesting

because of its evolution through handwritten, typewritten,

and digital document making. In handwriting, it is an almost

universal convention to underline headings as a means of

providing hierarchic structure. This is easily achieved and

will often be done as an afterthought.

For the typist, underlining was one of the few optionsavailable to provide emphasis within a typewritten text.

Underlining was also used as a convention in copy

preparation informing compositors to set type in italic.However, underlined characters were never part of the metal

letterpress stock, although it became a possible (but rarely

used) option with photo-composition. But in the 1980s and

1990s, it was a far more common sight in printed matter

because it was a typing convention and many typists

transferred their skills from typewriter to word processingand then to DTP software where underlining is an available

option.

The practice of centered arrangements for amateur bulletins

and posters has also remained almost universal. Up to (and


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beyond) the 1960s, amateur guidebooks on lettering would

suggest that typographic organization was, above all else,

about balance and symmetry. Looking at advertising work

up to the 1940s, there was a surprisingly high proportion of

material which was essentially symmetrical, but, after WorldWar II, the international advertising industry took Americas

lead, and was transformed by more flexible asymmetric

arrangements. Today, and since the 1950s in commercial

poster design, asymmetric arrangements have been entirely

dominant, and yet centered arrangements persistently, and

perhaps appropriately, remain the norm, generation after

generation, for the traditional, slower pace of life

represented on the village community bulletin board.

DTP has also meant that a large amount of material for

public display that would previously have been produced by

the jobbing printer is produced in peoples homes and

offices. However, the technology has not had as big an

influence on the actual appearance of local bulletins asmight have been expected. With any new technology there

is a period of time when the new mimics the conventions of

the previous technology. It has, however, rendered the skill

of drawing letterforms and applying color unnecessary, and,of course, multiple copies mean that more information can

be included.


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conclusionTypography is now something everybody does, althoughonly typographers call it typography. For everyone else it

is now considered a very common, everyday practice, a

manual task requiring virtually no thought whatsoever.

Thus, the fundamental significance of typography as an

intellectual discipline and as a personal accomplishment has

become, and probably always was, something of an enigma.

But whereas, in the past, typography and printing were

genuinely mysterious activities (commonly referred to as

the black art), today everyone has access to the sametools, the same hardware and software.

Typography is so familiar, so matter of fact, that mostpeople fail even to acknowledge its existence. In some ways,

of course, this is the successful result of its invisible

application by generations of printers/typographers. The

proof of good typography has nothing to do with technology;

it can be judged only in the reading.

The message needs interpretation not interpretation as a

masquerade of typefaces but interpretation as an evaluation

of content. Interpretation in the sense of discovering the

message which has been broken up into essential, minor

and insignificant thoughts. Interpretation not only in

advertising but also in literature, and ideally a close

collaboration between form and content.

To bawl and to whisper, quickly and slowly, all these areexpressions of verbal communication. Reading matter will

also have to bawl and whisper, will have to run and to stroll,

will have to emerge quietly and lovingly as estheticexperiences. Typography lives its own esthetic life next to

the functional typography, the typography of messages. We


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read words and sentences but are not aware of the formal

qualities of typefaces as long as letters are lined up in order

to convey a message.

Typography need not only be visible and legible. Typographyneeds to be audible. Typography needs to be felt.

Typography needs to be experienced. Typography today

does not mean to place, typography today means to portray.

At its best, typography today is a wonderful blend of art and

technology. And that is nothing new. It was that way when

ideograms were cut in tablets or letters where chiseled in

stone or penned on papyrus or scrolls. We just need to

remember that long before todays technologies were justideas, and long after they are obsolete, the artist will have

to manipulate some technology so that typography will be

seen, and read, and understood, and, to be truly effective,

be felt.


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Case-studyA film poster is a very important communication tools which

attracts the audience towards the film. It usually contains an

image with text, though this has evolved over time from

image-free bill posters through to the highly visual digitalproductions of today. The text usually contains the film title

in large lettering and often the names of the main actors.

So considering these things in mind, I have taken the poster

of film DON from two different eras, one Amitabh

Bachanans DON (1978) and another Shahrukh Khans DON

(2007).

The typography used in both the DON is bold with uppercase

fonts, i.e., all in Caps which gives a sense of dominance and

presence (presenting a person or an attitude rather than a

concept or theme).

DON (Old) - White fonts on a black drop makes the title

stand out on colored poster. The block like representation of

the protagonist and the Gun goes well with the title.

DON (New) - Sleeker yet bold fonts is depicting presence

and speed. The green color with motion blur goes well with

todays world of high-tech gadgets and fast life. Here the

attitude and personality is given higher preference (through

the text) rather than the protagonist (dark silhouette).


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bibliography1. Art & Print Production- N.N. Sarkar2. Early History of the Alphabet: An introduction to West3. Semitic Epigraphy and Palaeography Joseph Naveh4. Handbook of Greek and Latin Paleography Edward

Maunde Thompson

5. The Book through 5000 yearsH.D.L. Vervliet6. A View of Early Typography up to About 1600 Harry

Carter

7. The History & Power of Writing Henri-Jean Martin8. The Palaeography of Gothic Manuscript Books Albert

Derolez

9. The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe Elizabeth L. Eisenstein

10. A Short History of the Printed Word Chappell &Bringhurst

11.Mysteries of the Alphabet: The Origins of Writing Marc-Alain Ouaknin

12. Medieval Calligraphy: Its History and Technique Marc Drogin

13. From Gutenberg to OpenType Robin Dodd

websites1. www.wikipedia.org2. www.pointlessstart.com3. www.ilovetypography.com
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0548371342?ie=UTF8&tag=japanagocom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0548371342http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0714815535?ie=UTF8&tag=japanagocom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0714815535http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0714815535?ie=UTF8&tag=japanagocom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0714815535http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0548371342?ie=UTF8&tag=japanagocom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0548371342

Kartik Sinha

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