Johann Gutenberg, the creator of the printing press was also known for inventing the first typeface, or font. His font, Gothic Blackletter was created in order to make his books look hand written yet from the press.
As the printing press gained popularity and began to be used for a wide variety of texts, the need for more fitting typefaces emerged. Nicholas Jenson created the next font which was the first roman typeface. Roman typefaces are known for being more light weight and used in many formal occassions.
Aldus Manutius and Francesco Griffo create the first italic style font influenced by the cursive handwritting popular in Italy.
The first measurment system for typeface is created by Pierre Fournier le Jeune. The system measures font size in "picas" and this system still stands today.
John Baskerville creates his own font, Baskerville Type to change up the typeface game. This font was the first to take into consideration leading, margins and strokes. He created a variety of thing and thick strokes and adjustable width and leading.
Lord Stanhope created the first steam powered printing press to take the place of Johann Gutenberg's manual press. This press allowed for 480 pages per hour to be printed and doubled the size of the printing space. This iron press would have an impact on typgraphy everywhere.
Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue and Ingalls Kimball created a typeface for their own use at a New York publishing company and name it Cheltenham.
The American Typeface Founders began with the copperplate font created by Frederic W. Goudy. This font was influenced by both the Victorian Age and the stone carving look.
Times New Roman is a serif font created by Victor Larden for the British newspaper, The Times. Times New Roman is the go to font for nearly all essays, books, webpages, and almost all business related texts.
The first brush font collection was created.
Aldo Novarese creates the typeface labeled as Eurostile a font collection created for and used mostly by Europe.
Joel Kaden and Tony Stan invent and create the first American Typewriter for the International Typeface Corporation.
Programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator are created by Adobe and begin making the need for typography in the design world known.
Typefaces of all sorts are made avaiable for download on PC's around the US.
The first 300 dots per inch printer is invented for home use.
Helvetica typeface is debuted and a documentary is made to document its journey.
We'd love to hear from you. Please send questions or feedback to the below email addresses.
Before contacting us, you may wish to visit our FAQs page which has lots of useful info on Tiki-Toki.
We can be contacted by email at: hello@tiki-toki.com.
You can also follow us on twitter at twitter.com/tiki_toki.
If you are having any problems with Tiki-Toki, please contact us as at: help@tiki-toki.com
Close