Have you ever considered how modern typefaces such as the one you’re reading right now, Arial, were developed? This brief stop motion animation summarizes these developments. As an example, one of the most popular typefaces of all time, Times New Roman, has a longer history than you’d imagine. Its name comes from the British newspaper The Times, for which it was developed in 1931. However, the “Roman” part of the name references the roman style of typefaces, which has its roots in 15th century European manuscripts. When typography was originally developed by none other than Johannes Gutenberg, the emphasis of the type was the mimic the letter style of scribes. However, this did not take readability into account, and as typography became more and more widely used, different type styles such as roman were developed for the sake of readability and contrast. Some of these styles are shown in this video, which paints an intriguing window into the history of type.
Categories: S_21
