Of Type and Time
- Authors
- McMinn, Robert
- Publisher
- Pubmin
- Tags
- arts and crafts , theory , legibility , typography , critical theory , type , modernism
- Date
- 2013-03-16T00:00:00+00:00
- Size
- 0.48 MB
- Lang
- en
Type arouses passions, and has been doing so for more than 500 years.
From the very beginning of moveable type, there has been debate about what is the "ideal" letterform, and printers through the ages have made arguments for different styles of letters. Gutenberg based his type on the national handwriting of the time, while his student Jenson, went back to the 9th century to base his first roman type on the Caroline minuscule.
This is a critical investigation into debates concerning type design, with a focus on legibility and the endless search for the "perfect" letterform. Originally produced as a Master of Arts dissertation in Critical Theory, this updated and revised text links the discourse around type to ideas about noise in communications and cultural movements, including Arts and Crafts and Modernism.
The 2013 version of the text has been changed to reflect some of the changes since 1996, when it was first written, and the illustrative material has been enhanced.