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Throughout history, typography has changed drastically. Knowing the legacy of typography will help you understand it better. So here's a very brief look at the history of typography.
Typography can be divided into 6 categories
1. Humanist (Venetian)
2. Old Style (Garald, Aldine)
3. Transitional (Realist)
4. Modern (Didone)
5. Slab-Serif (Egyptian, Mechanical)
6. Sans-Serif (Grotesque, Antique)
HumanistHumanist was the first roman type, that superseded the Blackletter of the Middle ages. It first appeared in Venice in the end of the 15th century inspired by the light and open formed manuscripts from the Renaissance. The characteristics of Humanist is, sloping cross-bar on the lowercase “eâ€, relatively small x-height and low contrast strokes (little variation in the stroke width)
(Examples of Humanist Typography) Centaur, Jenson, Kennerley
Old StyleWhile Humanist typography has its roots in calligraphy and was based much upon the handwriting of the Venetian scholars, Old Style distinguishes itself by greater refinement augmented by increasing technical skills. Old Style have greater contrast in the strokes and is more uprightly stressed most notable be the vertical lower case "e". Humanist typography flourished only for a few decades, but the Old Style period lasted more then 2 centuries from Aldus Manutius & Claude Garamond to William Caslon. The Period spawned many classic types still used today and also introduced the first italics.
(Examples of Old Style Typography) Goudy Old Style, Garamond, Bembo, Palatino, Caslon, Sabon
TransitionalWith the Enlightenment, change from the Old Style was ordered by the French king Louis XIV. Taking yet another step away from the calligraphic roots, Transitional Typography has a greater contrast between the strokes and has a vertical or almost vertical stress in the bowls.
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One of the pioneers of the Transitional period is John Baskerville who with a little help from his friend Benjamin Franklin perfected the style of the time.
(Examples of Transitional Typography) Baskerville, Bookman, Fournier, Cheltenham
ModernOver time the contrast between the strokes in type have become greater and greater. The Modern Typography which was first seen in the Industrial Era took the final step when in comes to the contrast, leaving the small strokes Hairline thin.
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Very little is left of the calligraphic pedigree and Modern types aren't very suitable for body text, but is very popular for display use. (see any fashion magazine)
(Examples of Modern Typography) Didot, Bodoni, Walbaum
Slab-SerifSlab Serif is also known as Egyptian, though it has very little to do with Egypt besides being introduced on the frontpage of the newspapers after Napoleon returned from a 3 year expedition to Egypt. Up until now type had no other purpose but for long legible texts in books, but with the rising of industrialization and advertising a more dominant type was created. Much like the Modern Didones, Slab-Serif was used as display types and possess the characteristic 90 degress unbracketed serifs. With time less dominant slab-serifs were introduced with little to no contrast and types with small brackets like Clarendon.
(Examples of Slab-Serif Typography) Egyptienne, Rockwell, Clarendon, Archer, American Typewritter
Sans-SerifThe first time we really saw sans-serif types (sans is “without†in French) was in the mid 19th century. With prints sans-serifs were known for having a darker type color, though we are not talking more black, but more bold or more weight. It wasn't until the end of the century that sans-serif types with lowercase characters became wide spread. These early sans-serifs were dubbed Grotesque, some say because the people who used to the serifs didn't like them.
In the 1950s types like Helvetica and Univers brough in the Neo-Grotesque style which was based on the Grotesque style but more simple with little to no contrast, high x-height and small apetures.
In Germany in the 1920s the Bauhaus era flourished and it was the birthplace of the Geometric typefaces. Based on geometric symbols the design was simple and contained little of the historical shapes and letters. Most known type from the time is Futura.
Going in the opposite direction of the serif types, sans-serif have become more humanist over time. Starting out with little contrast and little calligraphic signs, Humanist sans-serifs like Gill Sans, Frutiger, Meta & Optima show a more classical hand written style with greater contrast and better suited as legible body text.
If you want to know more on this here is a few links
ilovetypography.com/2007/11/06/type-terminology-humanist-2
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VOX-ATypI_classification
If you need a little help on the Terminology here's an image courtesy of Fontshop. Click on it to go to there type glossary.
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