Readability of early typefaces wasn’t ideal, especially the italic typefaces favored for saving space. Improving readabilityĮfficiency was not the only typographic challenge tackled by the first type of designers. While initially invented as a space-saving measure, italics are still used to emphasize text.Īn example of an early italic typeface. In 1501, Aldus Manutius and Francesco Griffo created the first italic typeface, which allowed even more text to fit onto the page. While Jenson’s Roman type saved space on the printed page, others were trying to save even more space to improve the efficiency of book printing. His Roman type is the basis for multiple modern fonts, including Centaur, created by Bruce Rogers in 1914, and Adobe Jenson, created by Robert Slimbach in 1996. Jenson’s typeface was the first to be created based on typographic principles rather than manuscript models. Jenson’s early Roman typeface was more streamlined than Blackletter and saved space on the page. He created the first Roman typeface, based on Blackletter and Italian Humanist lettering. In 1470, Nicolas Jenson recognized that simpler letterforms would result in being able to fit more text on a single page, resulting in shorter books with faster setup times. But as mentioned above, the downside was that they took up considerable space on the page. Space-saving typefacesīlackletter typefaces were the original standard for printing, mainly because they mimicked the handwriting style of the time. Pages from Gutenberg’s bible, with original Blackletter typeface and decorative illustrations.

The downside was that it limited the amount of text that could fit on a single page, creating longer books that required more time to set up. Gutenberg’s letterforms were based on the Blackletter calligraphy that was used to write manuscripts. While arranging the letters for each page could take an entire day, the page could then be printed as many times as necessary from that single day’s work. He drew on the movable type used in East Asia and screw-type presses being used by farmers in Europe to devise the idea for the first printing press.īecause Gutenberg was a goldsmith, he was able to create durable letter blocks that could be used over and over again.

Gutenberg recognized that being able to mass-produce books quickly and cheaply was a lucrative prospect.

Caslon font history