Typography definition
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed.
The term is often expanded to include the design of vernacular typefaces, type design, and typographic style.
The different types of typography are classified according to the typefaces used also known as fonts, their size, and the use of italics.
Early writing systems, such as Sumerian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphics, used pictures to represent the words.
As writing systems developed into the alphabet, different methods of arranging the symbols emerged, accompanied by the need to create a standard way of writing.
Type emerged as a way to reproduce the symbols more quickly and accurately.
The History of Typography
The history of type can be traced back to the Stone Age. Many ancient cave paintings record hieroglyphic writing.
This was a form of writing which was not well understood until the 19th century.
Although the rules of hieroglyphics are not generally known, it is thought that early writings were created by scratching symbols into the rock surface.
When the hieroglyphs were scratched into a rock surface, the symbols were only seen from one angle.
The first evidence of this type of writing was found at the great pyramid of Giza, dating from around 2613-2593 BC.
This is around a thousand years before the first record of cuneiform writing. Early cuneiform writing used different symbols for different words and places.
Types of Typography
Typography is mostly concerned with arranging type. This can be done using a typeface, script or numbers to represent the individual letters.
Manual & Print: Paper-based typewriters, letterpress printing, miniatures, serif, and sans serif typefaces
Digital: Programming text into a HTML file (or typography), or type in a WordPress theme (or copy it into an HTML file).
Script: Comic Sans, Comic Dropping, old English Monospaced: When different sizes are used for each character, e.g