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Previously we saw the “Part I: Handwritten type” here. Now, the last part of this article talks about what happened when printed type turned up, making a big historical change, discarding the need of scribes. Imagine yourself as a scribe at that time see your life work being substituted by machines.

For other side, imagine how important was to create this technology that would simplify the work of writing a book and in future democratize publications. Let’s see what happened between all that.

Johannes Gutenberg – Movable type printing – 15th century

Searching for a system for automate writing, Gutenberg created the movable type system. This was not the first system, it had already been tried in China and Korea, but these versions from the 10th century demanded too much work. Guttenberg has used a metal alloy, which is still used today. He also printed what is known as the “Guttenberg Bible”, much cheaper than the handwritten bibles that time.

Type Founding

In order to make a type system, the first thing is carving each letter in a metal bar. This is called punchcutting. Then it’s improved to make the final matrix, which is a negative mold. The casting is made using the matrix to create a rectangular block called “sort” made of lead, tin and antimony.

After type founding…

… According to the Japanese National Diet Library “Dawn of Western Printing”, “… we can say roughly that in the age of incunabula, about 1,100 printers used 4,600 type founts to print 27,000 titles of books and documents. Gothic type accounts for 79% of all types used, while Roman types represents around 19%. Besides these two major founts, Greek, Hebrew … were created… Some 1,200 Gothic type founts were used in both Italy and Germany, and some 700 Gothic type founts in France. Most of Roman types were used by Italian printers, while only a small number of German, French and Spanish printers used Roman type. Printers in England and the Netherlands seldom or never used Roman type.”

The social matter

The type printing was a big evolution, but a problem for the church. Religious authorities, with their scribes, had control of what was published, but not with the type printing. To avoid the spread of undesired ideas, the government and church had to approve anything before printing.

Type history is really amazing, involving social matters and discoveries. Typography gets even more interesting when we know about its history, isn’t it? If you want to read more about that check the links:

• Design History
• Wikipedia – Johannes Gutenberg
• Wikipedia – Movable type
• Wikipedia – Type Foundry

Related posts:

1. The evolution type – Part I: Handwritten type
2. The Hystory of Symbols