Typographic Firsts

Adventures in Early Printing

By: John Boardley

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Hardcover | 15 March 2019 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover
208 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
25.3 x 20 x 2.9

Hardcover

$71.75

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How were the first fonts made? Who invented italics? When did we figure out how to print in color?

Many of the standard features of printed books were designed by pioneering typographers and printers in the latter half of the fifteenth century. Johannes Gutenberg is credited with printing the first books in Europe with moveable type in the fifteenth century, but many different European printers and publishers went on to find innovative solutions to replicate the appearance of manuscript books in print and improve on them throughout the Renaissance. The illustrated examples in Typographic Firsts originate in those early decades, bringing into focus the influences and innovations that shaped the printed book and established a Western typographic canon.

From the practical challenges of polychromatic printing and sheet music printing to the techniques for illustrating books with woodcuts and producing books for children to the design of the first fonts, these stories chart the invention of the printed book, the world’s first means of mass communication. Also covering title pages, maps, printing in gold, and printing in color, this book shows how a mixture of happenstance and brilliant technological innovation came together to form the typographic and design conventions of the book.

Industry Reviews

'Offers some beautiful ornate examples to linger over, but the reader is never allowed to forget that the Renaissance book was a product of painstaking labour and mechanical ingenuity. Not to mention hard-nosed business. ... for those wanting an introduction to incunables, Typographic Firsts is a visual treat.' * TLS *
'This is a great book for those studying typographic history and for anyone with a love for print.' * Choice *

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