But as already mention this was too radical for the English. Making the definition between thin and thick lines, sharpening the serifs and making curves more ovular. From his foundry in Birmingham he believed that he could perfect type. When he died in 1775 his wife carried on his foundry for a while but eventually his wife sold his punches to a French foundry, as once again they were rejected by any English foundry. His typefaces received criticism in England as not being as good as Caslon but throughout Europe he was hailed as a master, influencing Bodoni and Didot. The US Declaration of Independence was set in Caslon and even in the 20th Century there were signs hanging in print shops in the States and beyond that declared ‘When in doubt, use Caslon’.Ī contemporary of Caslon was John Baskerville. It has been scrutinised, enhanced and bastardised by many other type designers. The Caslon typeface still survives today. He was a craftsman of exquisite dedication. Caslon was truly the father of English typography and created a foundry in 1737 that stayed in the family for over 120 years. He was an engraver by trade and a real craftsman and when he set his mind to creating a typeface people marvelled at its elegance and beautiful proportions. That honour goes to Caslon, William Caslon to be exact. Then came the first true English typeface. There was obviously no English style yet as Caxton was the first to bring printing to Britain. His typefaces were generally taken from the low countries where Caxton had lived. They are called, unsurprisingly, ‘Caxton’ and for identifying purposes Type 1, Type 2 and so on and so forth. And through his time in Bruges, we now spell ghost with a silent H because of its Flemish influence.Ĭaxton used only eight typefaces, which although modified through the centuries are still widely available. Just think how a Geordie sounds compared to a Bristolian. He had many headaches on the spelling of certain words because of the dialects all over Britain. He is acknowledged as the man who did most to standardise English as printed works needed to be as standardised as possible. Where he printed the first copies of the Bible in English, Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and Aesop’s Fables. He was probably The Godfather of British typography. Not only did he become a master printer, arguably the best of his time but also the first retailer of printed works and books. Then along came William Caxton, he bought the printing press to England in 1476. And so the Protestant reformation lit a fuse that is explosive today as it was back then. When in 1517 Martin Luther printed multiple copies of his Ninety-Five thesis. Which led to all sorts of problems that Gutenburg could never have imagined. Letting the hoi polloi devour the bible for themselves. He partnered with Johan Fust and they began to print bibles in 1455. He democratised the printing press at least. Whilst metal moveable type setting presses were developed in Korea in 12th Century.Īnyway, back to Gutenburg. And ceramic moveable presses around 1040. As the Chinese had moveable woodblock type presses as far back as 868. Although Gutenburg created a moveable type printing press, he cannot claim to have invented it. Johannes Gutenburg who in 1446 started experimenting with what we now know as the printing press and by 1450 he had a working prototype. Communicating with everyone who sets their eyes on it.īut how has British typography and British type designers played their part in this world of letters and numbers? Only to be clattered by an oncoming lorry. If a STOP sign is written in Comic Sans would we take it seriously? Would we chuckle as we nonchalantly trundled past without a care in the world. But it is the design of the fonts that gives us the meaning and the take out of the letters and words. They tell us where we should be going, how we should think and even how we should feel. On every street corner, in every book and newspaper and on every side of every lorry. Before we get into the history of British typography.
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