History Of Type

Egyptian Hieroglyphics


The history of Egyptian Hieroglyphics go back as far as 3000 B.C , there isn't much to be known about the inventors but the recent study is still relevant in today's society. There was thousands of symbols used but not all of these symbols were used to write in Hieroglyphics, this ancient language was very difficult to learn, to fully understand the language there was a minimum of 700 symbols and often had more than one use , the interesting fact about this language is that each symbol had around 3 meanings or could simple be a representational meaning of the image.


There was a variety of uses for hieroglyphics one being they were prominently used to be displayed inside pyramids and tombs of the royal. Hieroglyphics conveyed the history of the Egyptian nation in particular the Egyptian Pharaohs. Studies even show that these symbols were used on jewelry and name plates.


http://www.ancient-egypt-online.com/history-of-hieroglyphics.html



Glyphs were very time consuming to create so the egyptians developed a script written method called hieratic this was developed in the early years of Glyph use.
The characters on the script resembled the symbols on glyphs but in a much more simplistic way what egyptians used to write on these scripts were reed pens and ink on papyrus, papyrus is a paper like material made from a part of a plant. This new method was only used for religious script , and for general communication.


http://history-world.org/hieroglyphics.htm


What the egyptians tried to do was find an easier way to produce their hieroglyphics so they found ways that made it easier for them to write, but in order to do this they had to find the materials and product, this was the first step in history to making symbols, glyphs easier to produce.


My conclusion to egyptian Hieroglyphics is that this was the start in which forms of type/symbols first come across, they cleverly made a method using raw materials to simplify the way of communication and how they adapted the use of symbols in a more simplistic way to make communication easier.

http://www.google.co.uk/images

Illuminated scripts


During 400-600 AD they used a term called 'manuscript' which comes from the latin word for 'hand written', - before books could be printed they had to be written out by hand. This took a lot of time and effort and could take up to months or even years. Paper was available in Southern Europe from the twelfth century, however did not become wide spread until the middle ages and even the fifteenth century in England. Before this they used a material called 'parchment' (also know as vellum) which was made from stretched, treated animal skins. A large manuscript could even use up to a whole cow or sheep skin to make a folded sheet of two to four pages and a thick book could require the skins of a whole heard - therefore medieval books were expensive.


Some manscripts were made even more valuable by 'illumination', - this comes from the word 'lit up' or 'enlighten' and refers to he use of bright colours and gold to make initial letters stand out. Sometimes the letters were purely decorative, but often work with the text to show important messages or to comment on the meaning of the text.


http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/TourIntroGen.asp


My conclusion to this method is that parchment was mass produced at this point so writing onto parchment was very easy the only problem was it took a very long time months to years to produce one book which made book very expensive. Because the demand in books began to increase the demand for parchment also increased which meant the prices were high so only the wealthy
could afford them.

http://www.google.co.uk/images

Chinese moveable type


During the Ch'ing-li period which was from 1041-1048, the printing technique was advanced further through the invention of 'moveable type'. This technique was expensive and took up quite a bit of time - each carved block could only be used for a specific page of a particular book. Each block had a chinese character carved on it and was made of clay and glue put together - after the block had been hardened by fire it was then durable.


For each chinese character there was several pieces of type - the number reached up to twenty or more if that character was very common. When they were not in use they were covered in paper for protection, they were grouped together according to rhymes and were stores in a wooden frame. If there were some uncommon characters that had not been prepared in advance the carver had to do it there and then, harden them with fire and make them fit for printing in little time.


To proceed with the printing the printer smeared an iron plate with a mixture of was, resin, turpentine and burned paper ash. Pieces of type were then placed on a plate quite close together and were arranged in a way to reflect the text of the book which was yet to be printed. They were confined together by an iron fence which was attached to the plate, and was then placed on a light fire in order to melt the mixture so that all the heads of al the pieces would appear on the same level. It was then ready for printing.


http://www.computersmiths.com/chineseinvention/movtype.htm


This was the first method in which there was moveable type but in the most simple way possible, as a machine was not yet invented at this point letter pieces had to be glued together, this was a massive step forward in type production but was still yet far away from where we are today.

http://www.google.co.uk/images

Johannes Gutenberg


Johannes Gutenberg who was a goldsmith and businessman from the known mining town of Mainz in southern Germany. Gutenberg borrowed money from his brother in law to invent a new technology that changed the world of printing Gutenberg invented the printing press with replaceable or moveable wooden/metal letters in 1450.


The invention of the press massively brought down the price of printed materials as it was much easier to be mass produced. How the press works is ink or rolled over the the raised surface of the moveable letters and was then pressed against a sheet of paper,this could be done for one whole sheet of paper but then the letters had to be rearranged for another page to be done the maximum number of lines that could go onto one page was 42.


This massively changed the lives of people during this period, it made books much more easier to buy as they were no longer hand written which decreased the time it took to produce one book, the first book Gutenberg produced was the 42 line bible this book was made in large volumes as it was one of the most wanted books and at the time was so expensive to buy.

Johannes Gutenberg Timeline

Johannes Gutenberg's invention of the press is still known today as one of the biggest steps forward in type production for its time, and if Gutenberg had not invented the press we might not be where we are today, but Gutenberg's press is a stop forward from the chinese moveable type.

Gutenberg's 42 line Bible page
http://www.google.co.uk/images

Printing press
http://www.google.co.uk/images