Type is on the way out

"What Gutenberg did over 550 years ago was invent a system in which the letters of the alphabet were cast in lead. For the centuries that followed not much really changed. Before you could print a book or newspaper, you needed to have metal type. All that went away, beginning in the late 1940s, as cool phototypography gradually took over the place of hot metal. And type as object receded even further into the past when digital typesetting took over in the 1980s."

"Until recently, everything that mattered was on paper: the Constitution, the Bible, The New York Times. Lately, the consequential stuff tends to arrive via iPhone text message. Sure, it's still Helvetica, and carries with it a whiff of that typeface's customary autority, but type today is a mere blip. It lives out its entire life cycle on the far side of the glass, intangible, remote, non-corporeal, elusive, transitory."

These two quotes have been taken from 'Talking type back to the human side of the screen' written by Karrie Jacobs from '3D typography' by Jeanette Abbink and Emily CM Anderson. I think these quotes emphasise how type is changing with society, and more importantly, the 24hour society we live in today. Everything must be delivered quickly, and setting type by letterpress is time consuming. I think letterpress is good. However I also think that internet based type is also good as it communicates in a much quicker way and we can receive instant updates. This is important to match the way we live our lives today, constantly progressing.

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