FOREWORD

Typography is an art. It endows the content of a written thought with an aesthetic
form. The choice of typeface, the point-size and the allocation of white space allow a
great deal of additional information to be conveyed to the reader. Thus the
preparation of a piece of print calls for professional skill, acquired in years of training.

Not all that long ago, it was only professionals who concerned themselves with
typography. But within the space of a few years all this has changed. The machines of
the desktop publishing trade have managed to imitate typographical letter-shapes. and
the market has been flooded with hundreds of typefaces, mostly without rhyme or
reason. The old, simple typewriter face has thus experienced an uncontrolled
explosion, leaving the custodians of these new machines with the dilemma of how to
use this rich selection of faces appropriately. Thus today there is an urgent need for
straightforward, intelligible guidance on the correct use of typographic faces. A book
such as The International Type Book makes a timely appearance and deserves to be given
a resounding welcome.

Ever since the emergence of mechanical and, more recently, photomechanical and
electronic typesetting a stream of new typefaces has appeared - not all of them of
excellent design. Longer texts necessarily demand a typeface of the same character as
the historical types, and ‘good design,’ to a typographer, means a typeface developed
from and based on the principles of the classical originals.

The basic structure of the typefaces in use today was laid down by the humanistic
calligraphers at the end of the fifteenth century They took as their inspiration the
Roman capitals on the one hand and on the other the clear and manageable script
established in the reign of Charlemagne in the latter part of the 8th and early 9th
centuries known as Carolingian minuscules. These two alphabets were cut by the
book-printers of the Renaissance, cast in lead, set by hand and printed by hand,
thereby determining forever the form of the Latin upper and lower case letters. This
original silhouette has hardly changed over the centuries and through constant use
and worldwide distribution these letters have become standard forms. They have of
necessity engraved themselves on the subconscious of the reader. These internalized
letter-forms function as a sort of archetype for reference while reading. The similarity
between one typeface and another is all the more important given that the letters are
not seen by the fluent reader as individual pieces but are taken in as whole words or
short phrases, all in one glance. However, this tendency towards uniformity does not
mean that in time the variety of typefaces will become impoverished - on the contrary,
from the same classical foundations every century has developed its own typical
contemporary styles. The most striking of them survive today as classical models.

For all of these reasons the crucial element in the conception of a book such as this is
the choice of the typefaces to be illustrated. The alphabets of the great historical
typographers are introduced as basic types: Garamont, Granjon, Caslon, Baskerville,
Janson, Plantin, Bodoni. To these are added those typefaces which were developed
from historical models, such as Bembo, Centaur, Galliard, Guardi, Sabon, Trajanus. In
the same group of classical text faces there follow the more individual faces designed in
the twentieth century such as Bookman, Palatino, Perpetua, Times, and many more.

The most important characteristic of the classical typefaces is the still discernable
flowline of the calligrapher’s pen: the downstrokes are thick, the upstrokes and
horizontals are thin, the ends of the strokes are more or less strongly marked with
serifs. In the course of the nineteenth century, a variant was developed in which this

contrast in stroke thickness was almost eliminated. This style is known as ‘slab serif but
it is of no great importance in the developmental history Examples of it are Clarendon,
Rockwell, Serifa.

A new stylistic group has been developed in the last century under the influence of
increasing industrialization and advertising. This is the ‘sanserif - as its name says,
these are typefaces without serifs. The oldest one shown here is Franklin Gothic.
Around 1930, sanserifs with constant strokewidth appeared (the О for example is a
perfect circle). Important examples here are Futura, Kabel and, despite its occasional
departures from this principle, Gill can also be counted among this group. After the
Second World War there appeared a great wave of sanserifs that abandoned the
construction principle and once again approached the classic basic form. These
sanserifs are termed ‘Grotesques.’ For publicity purposes and technical literature they
are still in favour today. The main examples of this family are Helvetica and Univers.
In recent years many other variants have appeared in this field and a number of them
are presented in this book: Antique Olive, Eras, Eurostyle, etc.

One final group of typefaces remains to be mentioned, namely the display faces.
Most of these depart from the classical regularity of the faces presented in this book.
And the possible uses for these creations - which have sprung purely from the fantasy
of their designers — are very limited. For this reason the deliberate decision was taken
not to include this baroque array in what is a carefully and consciously selected display

This book presents 66 typefaces. Nineteen of them have been chosen as
representative of the various epochs and style groups and each is offered in detail over
10 pages. In the large sizes, the roman alphabet is shown first - whereby ‘alphabet’
here, significantly, covers the upper and lowercase letters, the numerals and the
customary punctuation marks and monetary symbols. In the medium and small sizes,
the roman is flanked by the two most important accompanying series, italic and bold.
The small sizes especially reveal how the different faces vary in character width and
character count per pica. Text examples follow, in different sizes and with different
amounts of leading between the lines. These blocks of print show most impressively
how crucial the right amount of white space is if one is to achieve optimal reading
comfort.

The last two pages of the first 19 presentations show the typeface in action. ‘Live’
examples demonstrate their use in leaflets, stationery, reports, etc.

The other 47 faces are each presented over four pages, first in alphabetical form in
all sizes and then in simple text examples.

This International Type Book is more than a specimen book such as every type
manufacturer produces for his customers. The presentation of the large sizes allows
the reader to scrutinize the minutest details of each design. In the generous text
samples, where these details disappear, he can appreciate the harmonic interplay of
the letters within the page of text. Finally, in the ‘realia’ he can encounter items of print
which confront his eyes daily, and here recognize the professional touch - the judicious
balancing of typeface design, size and leading, the use of white space, all working
elegantly together.

It is our hope that thanks to this book a wide readership will gain insight into the
nature of type and its effect and will realize that typography is an important medium,
one that is daily before our eyes and one which is above all our key tool in the
assimilation of all knowledge.

Adrian Frutiger

July 1990