The Changes In Typography - The Digital Age

3099 Words13 Pages
Developments in Typography: The Digital Age. As a result of technology the last twenty years has brought changes to the culture and economic structure of the type industry and brought new ways in which type is treated on the page and screen. This paper follows the developments of typography over this time and discusses how software developments, the demands of the screen, and concerns with piracy have affected type in digital environments. The rules of typography and how they were broken in order to communicate to the computer literate audience within the context of message and medium is another key factor in the development of typography in the computer age. The changes in typography, brought about by the influence of computers, dates back twenty years. ‘In 1985, Adobe Systems introduced PostScript, a language for defining graphical pages’ (Biľak, P. 2000). This software was the most important factor in the form of present typography, as it allowed fonts to be designed and distributed independently of manufacturers of the systems on which they were printed (King, E. 1999b). Postscript language development gave control to the designer, increased accessibility (Biľak, P. 2000), and reduced production costs (Garnliel, Sandy 1988). In 1986, Alsys Fontographer was released and by 1988 anyone with the right desktop tools could manufacture type to be used on a variety of typesetting systems (King, E. 1999b). In the late 1980s there was a proliferation of designers creating new type using the desktop technology (King, E. 2001). Despite the many different designs, overall the styles which eventuated were not easily distinguished by geography as they had been in the past eg. Swiss design. To design typefaces everybody used Fontographer which had its particular defaults and tricks, and there was easier access to other people’s work. These factors led to the
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