COP 1 Lecture 4: The History of Type

Written words endure while spoken words disappear.

Type is the form with language is represented in (i.e. words, letters and symbols).

Typography is the process of creating type in a specific style or appearance. In a form which will appeal to most people and would last for a long time.

Using symbols as a form of recording information has been confirmed to originate from Mesopotamia. The form of early writing started of using pictograms which were used to communicate basic information. This changed through the years into the form of a script.

Mesopotamia pictograms

Mesopotamia, origins of writing

For a language to be established in any part of the world by a group of people there must be an agreement that a word or letter will stand for something.

The first alphabet therefore was the Greek alphabet developed by the Phoenicians. Futher development of the Greek created Latin which is a widely used alphabet today.

Latin

"Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe."