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. She
showed 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 I
explored 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 Structure
Design 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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4|Page
 Objective of study
Imagine 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
‗Close–Up‘ 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 ‗Kellogg‘s‘). 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 his
cheeks 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 his
mind 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. It‘s 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 – I‘m 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 Advertising‘s 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 text
and that the appearance of the text blocks differs greatly.

I selected this topic ―Typography as a means of

communication‖ because 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 in
an 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 are
standardized 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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 typography
“Typography is a beautiful group of letter

Not a group of beautiful letters”

STEVE BYERS

Typography comes from the Greek words typos ("mark or

figure") and grapho ("I write").

Typography is performed by typesetters, compositors,

typographers, graphic designers, art directors, comic book
artists, 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 vital
part 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 convey
a particular message to the reader. Type is often used to
draw attention to a particular advertisement, combined with
efficient 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 hot
metal 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 receives
ink and makes contact with the paper. It can also be
defined as the design of letter characters with consistent
visual 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 they‘re part of the same typeface family.
Even though the font files are different, the typeface— the
design—is 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 this
height. Some letter strokes that extend above & drop
below 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 through
well 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 machines
that 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 Decorative Novelty

Script Cursive
Square Serif Sans Serif

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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 typeset
material, 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 historical
genre 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 design
values 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, incidental
text 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 or

information designer. It has several aspects. The first is the
writer‘s 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 reader‘s

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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 is
unambiguous 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 example
of 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 to

comprehension‘. Typographers aim to achieve excellence in
both.

Apart from these, there are other things which affect the
function 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 books
and magazines; in fact, you are looking at it now — the
Latin or Roman alphabet, the world‘s 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 the

Middle 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

14 | P a g e
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. It‘s 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 be
found 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 today‘s 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 Egyptian
scripts 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 script
employs 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 Egyptian
hieroglyphs. 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-Sinaitic
script (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 what‘s 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 into
a series of abstract symbols? Mark-Alain Ouaknin, in
Mysteries of the Alphabet suggests 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 merchant‘s 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.)

22 | P a g e
 7.1 Greek Papyrus of Artemisia, 3rd century BC.

In Greek scripts we witness the jettisoning of pictographic

forms 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 among
the 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 and
religious 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 world’s 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 for
it. 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 had
been 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

Trajan‘s 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 used
scrolls 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.

27 | P a g e
Carolingian to Gothic

An Emperor and a Yorkshireman

The anonymous author of Carmen de carolo Magno refers to

Charlemagne as ‗the venerable head of Europe‘ and ‗the
father of Europe.‘ Though that‘s something of an
exaggeration, Charlemagne‘s 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 the
ascenders of b, 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 of
the 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 Carolingian

script 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.

28 | P a g e
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 century

manuscript, written in Textualis Formata. The first example
in the first line: Arbres et fleurs et ce que orne. Right:
Detail from Gutenberg‘s 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 wouldn‘t 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 the

Italian 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 Jenson‘s
roman 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 probably
made in Italy, early in the 16th century; the written form
was first used in the Middle Ages, in France and the
Netherlands. 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 alphabet
of 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 important
factor: 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, or
writing 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 to
rationalise 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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33 | P a g e
 application
In contemporary use, the practice and study of typography
is 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 design—type on household
appliances, 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".

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 problems related
Typographic decision-making begins when children start to
write, 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 a
process 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 children
to 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 to
be 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 the
use 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 options

available 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 processing
and 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 World
War II, the international advertising industry took America‘s
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 people‘s homes and
offices. However, the technology has not had as big an
influence on the actual appearance of local bulletins as
might 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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 conclusion
Typography is now something everybody does, although
only 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 same
tools, the same hardware and software.

Typography is so familiar, so matter of fact, that most

people 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 are

expressions 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 esthetic
experiences. 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. Typography

needs 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 today‘s technologies were just
ideas, 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-study
A 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 digital
productions 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
Bachanan‘s DON (1978) and another Shahrukh Khan‘s 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
today‘s 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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 bibliography
1. Art & Print Production- N.N. Sarkar
2. Early History of the Alphabet: An introduction to West
3. Semitic Epigraphy and Palaeography — Joseph Naveh
4. Handbook of Greek and Latin Paleography — Edward
Maunde Thompson
5. The Book through 5000 years — H.D.L. Vervliet
6. A View of Early Typography up to About 1600 — Harry
Carter
7. The History & Power of Writing — Henri-Jean Martin
8. 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

w ebsites

1. www.wikipedia.org
2. www.pointlessstart.com
3. www.ilovetypography.com

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