This is the third in a three part series:

• Back to basics, part I: the elements of design with printmaking
• Back to basics, part II: the principles of design with painting

Composition of design with photography

Though not as old as some of the other art forms we’ve discussed, photography has had no less of an impact on the way we visualize the art and design world. Many techniques used to create a brilliant photo can also be utilized to create engaging design. We’ve selected six of the most important techniques, but there are tons more out there!

Six compositional techniques of design are:

• Framing
• Dominance
• Foreground, Middle ground, Background
• Lead Room
• Rule of Thirds
• Rule of Odds

Foreground, Middle Ground, Background

Lead Room

An artist uses lead room in order to create a sense of movement. To do this, they create more space in front of the object, rather than behind it. This gives the impression that the object could shift somewhere within the design or artwork.

“Aerial view of pedestrians walking along Wall Street in strong sunlight and building in background with large recesses”  by Paul Strand in 1916.

To create a compelling image, Strand uses lead room in his depiction of a series of figures walking down the street . The work has both active and static figures: the figure on the leftmost side of the page is just a still image – someone with nowhere to go.

The rest of the figures in the image seem to be walking through the image, they have lead space in front of them, enhanced by the long shadow behind each figure. Combined, the figures give the sense of flowing street traffic against the stable and monumental building behind them.

Rule of Thirds

Rule of Odds

This simple rule states that objects in a work should be grouped in odd numbers, as this tends to be more pleasing to the eye.

“Salvador Dali A” or “Dali atomicus” by Philippe Halsman in 1948

Halsman uses a series of threes in his iconic portrait of artist Salvador Dali. Three cats, a chair with three visible legs, the trio of long dark objects – the chair the easel, and the artist himself. All of these odd numbered objects combined make the viewer see a more balanced yet still visually striking image.

Translating to Graphic Design

Two t-shirt designs from user bathi show off all of these techniques of composition.

Fell’s Point Preservation Society and Caribbean Trading Company t-shirt designs

Bathi uses framing as a tool to create the basic shape of both of these images. The ship is framed within a border of waves and banners, and the reclining figure is surrounded by the trees and moons of a caribbean island. It’s a great technique to bring attention to the main subject as well as create a space to work within for a T-shirt design.

Fell’s point is dominated by the image of the ship – achieved in the creation of a large subject depicted in contrasting colors, enhanced but not distracted by the sea in the foreground and sky in the background of the image. The rule of odds comes into play with this design as well, with the three largest sails of the ship standing out to the viewer as a trio.

The rule of thirds is put into play in the Caribbean Trading Company design, with the positioning of the two trees stretching vertically and the hammock horizontally along the lines created by an imaginary grid dividing the design into thirds. There’s also a fore, middle and background in the title, image of the island, trees, hammock and the moon. So despite the unrealistic proportions of the elements within the design, there is still a clear sense of space.

In addition, the figure in this design is given plenty of lead room to gaze off at the moon in the distance – giving the impression of a wistful gaze at the huge moon in the background and the potential for movement within the space depicted.

What essential compositional techniques do you use? Please share.

Roi spoke about his success and experience in building a portfolio, gaining real-world experience and earning money on 99designs. He also showed his fellow students how to enroll in the 99designs student reward program, a $99,999 fund that pays graphic design students an additional $99 for every win.

Here’s what Roi had to say:

“The meeting was great — about 40 students attended which was much more than expected. A faculty member helped arrange the meeting and it took place in a classroom at my school. For about an hour, I explained the site and the student rewards program. The students were very excited and I really think they are going to join the community.”

Check out the photos from this awesome event!

Thanks again to Roi Himan, as well as the faculty and students of the Neri Bloomfield School Design and Education!

If you’re a graphic design student, make sure fill out our student enrollment form.

Interested in holding an event? Contact filip@99designs.com

The Lasso Tools allow you to draw and pinpoint specific areas of a document. If you like drawing with pencil and paper or cutting and pasting objects from a photo, then you will love the Lasso Tools.

Lasso Tool

When you click on the Lasso Tool from the Toolbar, you will see three different tool options:

• Lasso
• Polygonal Lasso
• Magnetic Lasso

Note: you can select the Lasso Tool by pressing L. You can switch between the Lasso, Polygonal and Magnetic Lasso Tool by pressing SHIFT+L.

The Lasso Tool is great to use with a graphic tablet because it is similar to a pencil. Unlike a mouse or track pad, a graphic tablet can give a better flow when drawing and making selections.

With the Lasso Tool, click on your canvas and start drawing a shape. Once you release the mouse button, Photoshop will close the selection between the start and end points. In the image below, the magenta dots symbolize the start and end points where I released the mouse button. As you can see, Photoshop draws a straight line between points to finish my selection.

There are several options that appear under the menu bar when the Lasso Tool is selected. These options are the same as the Marquee Tool:

A great exercise to practice this tool is selecting specific elements from a photo.

For example, I used my graphic tablet to select the horses leg — as you can see, this is not my first rodeo. ;)

It’s possible to use the Lasso Tool for several reasons but I mostly use it to:

• grab pieces from other images
• draw shapes, like mountains, for matte paintings

In the image below, I used my excellent painter skills and created a background. I then used the Lasso Tool to create a mountain shape:

It’s not fancy but my goal is to show you the workflow. :) Now, we will fill the mountain selection with a linear gradient (white to gray).

After adding texture, painting in some details and playing around with shadows and highlights, I ended up with the image below:

I copied the mountain shape, transformed and scaled it. Finally, I painted a simple boat.

Voilà! Our demonstration is done.

Polygonal Lasso Tool

Activate the Polygonal Lasso Tool and start clicking on your canvas. You will quickly notice that the Polygonal Lasso only draws straight lines between your points. When you press and hold the Shift key you can create 45 degree angles.

To close a selection, you can either hit the Enter key or connect your first point to your last point — you will notice the icon symbol will change to a lasso and small circle once the selection is ready to be closed.

If you want erase a point as you’re making a selection, you can hit the Delete key.

This tool is great for selecting straight objects such as buildings. 

The real power of selections is combining different ones. For example, you can use the Lasso Tool to create a selection then use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to subtract from the selection, and the Marquee tool to intersect. Make sure the right selection is selected in the menu bar: add, subtract or intersect to selection.

Magnetic Lasso

This tool is quite different from the other two and can be a little frustrating when you use it for the first time. The Magnetic Lasso detects an object’s edge and automatically snaps alongside it while you are moving near it.

We will take a closer look at the menu bar which has 3 additional options for this tool:

• Width - defines how close you want to stay to an edge while tracing it
• Contrast - helps you fine tune the detection of the edge
• Frequency - defines how many points will be created along the edge

Using a flower image, create a starting point on an outside edge and begin moving carefully along the pedals. You might notice Photoshop doesn’t snap the points exactly where you’d expect. In this case, you can hit the Delete key to remove the previous point(s).

Sometimes, even when you remove a point and try again, Photoshop won’t snap to the correct area. When this happens, you can help Photoshop by laying down points where the edges are blurry or the contrast isn’t high.

Get a better feel for this tool by playing around and increasing the width, contrast and frequency. Personally, I like to keep the frequency somewhere between 10 and 30. The width and contrast depends on the image size and quality, but the default values of 20 pixel wide and 10% contrast are usually fine.

Note: press the Caps Lock key and your cursor will turn from the Magnetic Lasso icon to a circle showing you the width of the edge detection.

Coming up next

There are still a ton of great tools and techniques to explore. We will take a look at:

• Quick Selection
• Magic Wand
• Eraser Tools
• Pen Tool
• Color Range
• Quick Masks
• Layer Masks
• Vector Masks
• Channels
• Refine Edge Tool

As you can see there is A LOT of technical skills to master… that’s what makes graphic design so rewarding! :)

Any tips on the Marquee Tool? Please share.

Over the past few weeks, we have gone over basic key terms in typography and explored the history of type technology. Now, without further delay let’s dive into the most fascinating chapter of all: the evolution of typeface style, leading right up to the massive array of fonts we have to choose from now. You may notice many of these old styles echoed in the modern type we see today.

Blackletter (aka Gothic, Block, Fraktur, Textura and Old English): Blackletter is the oldest typeface that still has significant echoes in modern type. It emerged in Europe in the middle ages (around 1150 AD) and stuck around well into the 17th century — especially in Germany. It is the direct descendent of Carolingian minuscule, which itself came from Uncial script.

(left to right) Uncial script, Carolingian miniscule, Blackletter typefaces

When books became more popular with the rise of universities, scribes needed a more efficient typeface than Carolingian — something easier to write and more dense, so more type could fit on a single page. The tall, narrow, sharp and blocky Blackletter emerged in solution.

Blackletter typeface

Humanist (aka Venetian): This typeface emerged around 1460 and was based on the script style of Italian humanist thinkers. It is much lighter and less blocky than Blackletter, making it a lot easier to read by today’s standards.

The median height of its letters is distinctively low which has caused it to fall out of popularity nowadays. Some Humanist-inspired typefaces you might recognize: Centaur, Adobe Jenson, Verona SB.

(left to right) Centaur, Adobe Jenson, and Verona SB typefaces

Old Style (aka Garalde): Old Style type was the first style to emerge in the era of movable type letterpress printing (late 15th century), rather than calligraphy and scribes. The effects are clear. More sophisticated molding technology allowed for greater contrast between thick and thin strokes and more delicate serif tails.

The horizontal axis becomes more prominent (no more sloped cross-bars on the “e,” for instance), while italics emerge for the first time. Though its name might suggest otherwise, most people would find Old Style the first modern-looking typeface. Examples: Goudy Old Style, Palantino, Cheltenham.

(left to right) Goudy Old Style, Palantino, and Cheltenham typefaces

Transitional (aka Neoclassical): This style came about in the Enlightenment period (18th century). It takes Old Style a step further, eliminating all remaining traces of handwritten calligraphy in favor of a fully mechanical look (the Enlightenment was all about ditching tradition and celebrating invention). Thin strokes get thinner and thick strokes get thicker; the amount of serif tails increases; the vertical and horizontal axes rule — diagonal strokes and leaning attitudes disappear (except in italics, of course).

For a 300 year old style, we still use transitional fonts all the time today. Surely you recognize Baskerville, Times New Roman, and Georgia.

(left to right) Baskerville, Times New Roman, and Georgia typefaces

Modern (aka Didone): The first Modern font, by Italian printer Giambattista Bodoni, appeared in 1784 but the style really became in vogue (and in Vogue) in the 20th century. The style takes the stylistic progression of the Old Style and Transitional typefaces to its ultimate conclusion: super fat thick strokes contrast with hairline thin strokes with abrupt, right angle serifs.

Nowadays, the style exudes luxury and high fashion. Examples: Bodoni, Didot, Walbaum

(left to right) Bodoni, Didot, and Walbaum typefaces

Slab (aka Egyptian, Square Serif, Mechanical): Up until the 19th century, type was almost always intended for book reading.

Around the beginning of the 1800s, though, new uses for text became popular: advertisements, posters, and large newspaper headlines — things designed to catch your eye.

(left to right) Clarendon, Rockwell, and Playbill typefaces

The Slab serif arrived to fill this need. They are basically modern typefaces, fattened up with thick, block-like strokes. Most typewriter fonts are also slabs.

You know: Clarendon, Rockwell, Playbill and, of course, Courier. The typewriter also introduced monospacing — forming a typeface in which every glyph is the exact same width.

Courier — a monospaced slab typeface

Sans Serif: The word “sans” in French means “without.” So there you have it: sans serifs lack those little tabs and tails that, up until the 1830s were in practice mandatory. People did not adapt to the change easily. Early sans serifs became known as “grotesques” because people found them so ugly.

(left to right) Helvetica, Lucida Sans, and Verdana typefaces

After the grotesques, three other categories of sans serif emerged:

1. the Neo-grotesques (aka transitional, realist), which are totally plain and easy to read; the famous Helvetica is one of these
2. the Humanists, which are slightly more calligraphic; they include Calibri, Lucida Sans and Verdana
3. the Geometrics, which achieved a distinctly modern feel by being based entirely on geometric shapes; Futura and Century Gothic are examples.

(left to right) Futura and Century Gothic typefaces

That covers the major progression of typeface style over the centuries. If you’re thinking “wait, I see loads of typeface styles that don’t quite fit into any of those categories,” you’re totally correct. Since the advent of digital technology, the number of typefaces has skyrocketed to include a number of styles that were previously extremely rare even unheard of. Here are a handful:

Script: directly imitates handwriting and calligraphy

(left to right) Kuenstler, a formal script typeface, and Caflisch Script, an informal script

Mimicry: for the roman alphabet but evokes other writing systems, like Hebrew, for example

Faux Hebrew — Roman letters in Hebrew style

Ornamental (aka novelty): not the most readable, this typeface sometimes includes objects, animals and other flourishes

Mutlu Ornamental

Symbol (aka Dingbat): consists of symbols that may not resemble normal typographic characters at all

Windings

For more information on the evolution of typeface style, check out this awesome series of articles on I Love Typography, starting here.

What are your favorite typefaces? What typefaces do you absolutely hate? Share them in the comments!

Udemy, HotelTonight, Zaarly, GitHub and your very own 99designs each selected 5 employees to compete in the event. After a few weeks of dedicated fundraising and Twitter smack talk, we did 100 effortless pushups for our charity DonorsChoose.org.

Appreciating our Australian origins (we were founded in Melbourne back in 2008), our team dressed as Crocodile Dundee while community team member Stephanie strutted a Kangaroo pajama jump suit.

Want to see the madness for yourself? Check out our footage of the event, as well as some fantastic action shots and let us know what you think:

We’d like to send a BIG THANK YOU to event organizers Dan, Max and Holly from Udemy; our amazing competitors who made the event a blast; our pushup team who did an award-winning job and 99designs staff members Lauren and Garrett for their awesome motivation.

And of course a BIG THANKS to those who donated, including our friends at Getaround!

This collection of gadgets is all about fun and finding a way to bring something new and experimental to the table. Tapping into your inner child can be the best thing for your design – so take some tips from the product design below and make something unexpected.

MaKey MaKey (you HAVE to watch this cool video)

MaKey MaKey is doing big things! They’ve already made more than five times their $25,000 goal on Kickstarter and they have 25 days to go. This ingenious “Invention Kit for Beginners and Experts” allows users to turn whatever object they want into a touchpad for their computer. All you have to do is attach whatever object you want to use with alligator clips (included in the kit) to the MaKey MaKey. Voila! Your object is transformed into a mouse or keyboard. Don’t get it? Don’t worry. Check out this video to see how it works – they use bananas as a keyboard!

Art and invention are similar in that the best results come from a willingness to experiment and use unexpected components to create a great final product.

cstick Cotton Candy

The cstick “Cotton Candy” is the next step in the ever shrinking consumer electronic. It’s a TINY computer without a screen – why not walk around with a computer in your pocket? You plug this into any screen – a computer monitor, TV screen, phone or tablet and you can utilize it to run your favorite applications.

It’s also a great analogy for design: a simple, yet strong design concept can be adapted for any medium – like a logo incorporated into stationery, business cards and a website. Adaptability is a huge factor in the success of this product and your designs.

Orime Mouse

Japanese giants Nendo and Elecom have partnered to create the coolest looking mouse around: the Orime. There are no curves on the mouse at all – it’s a geodesic hunk of flat surfaces and edges. This is a great example of taking a product or design that’s been done pretty much the same, time after time and making something completely different and original.

Olly and Polly

Olly and Polly may not be the most practical of siblings but they sure bring fun to social networking! Olly is a small gadget which you can attach to your computer that releases a frangrance any time you interact with social applications like Twitter, Facebook, instant messages and e-mail. Any time you get an e-mail, message, mention or other notification, a spritz of perfume is released from the “robot” into the air.

Polly does the same thing but with CANDY! Adding an interesting and unique detail to even the most mundane design, no matter how strange, is worth it!

Sustainability Internet Router

You can keep green when you’re surfing the net with this Sustainability Internet Router by Thomas Craven. Made from recycled and eco-friendly materials, this machine still manages to look great – sleek and simple, with an easy power button created to not only make working this device simple, but to cleanly display the brand’s logo for easy brand recognition.

Simplicity is key but having a significant purpose behind the design of a product, logo or website is the most important part of your design.

Anyone know other great and fun electronics? Please share!

If you are going to use stock, there are a few things to know before implementing someone else’s work into your designs.

“A copyright will protect you from pirates” by Ioan Sameli is okay to use for this blog under the Creative Commons license which was found in a specific section of Flickr.com for Creative Commons-licensed images.

Why some designers use stock

Stock can save a designer’s time and money, and help individuals who are not experts in photography and illustration. It’s no surprise that some designers turn to stock for purposes spanning a variety of design projects such as websites, banners, book covers and more.

However, as a professional designer it is always best to create original work. Most professionals do not use stock vectors or clip-art because creating vector art is a graphic designer’s job after all.

If you are fresh in the design industry and want to expand your skills so you don’t have to rely on stock images – have no fear! We’ve created dozens of resources which may be a tremendous help in showing individuals how to build their skills and amp up their originality.

Finding and using stock images

When stock usage is inevitable (like adding an image to a blog post ;) it’s important to know the correct places to look.

Proper stock images can be found at their original source where you can obtain licensing information. If you find an image online, it doesn’t mean it’s public domain.

Take Google Images, for example. Google is the most inappropriate place to pull images because one can easily be using copyrighted material without knowing. Instead, designers should look on credible sites which are dedicated to organizing and correctly labeling stock.

Designers should also keep in mind that most “free” vector sites often take from stock sites, so be weary that they are okay to use. If the definite source for an image cannot be found, it is better to move on and use something correctly cited.

Before diving into a stock site, get familiar with the 3 basic types of stock:

1. Royalty-free

Royalty-free images are the best choice for the budget-minded and anyone can purchase them. Royalty-free is the most popular, affordable license because it allows you to use the image multiple times, without paying a royalty. It is the most lenient for uses in both commercial and personal projects.

2. Rights managed

This license grants exclusive, time-limited use of an image to only the licensee. Given on a pay-per-use basis, these images can only be used for one particular project, for a set period of time and often in specific geographical areas. They’re expensive to license but offer protection against competitors using the same image and allow for larger print runs.

3 Extended/enhanced

Some stock companies offer Extended or Enhanced licenses which extend the permitted uses of a previously licensed work. This gives permission to “extend” upon the original license which may include increasing the number of copies showing the image, resale purposes (posters, t-shirts, greeting cards, etc) or allow for other methods of distribution.

As a 99designer, it is best to use any stock image with its watermark. Clearly displaying an image’s watermark in your design sends a clear message to the CH, and other designers that you are aware of the source and that a license must be obtained.

Winning design by vanessanoheart

When stock is okay on 99designs

On 99designs, designers can NOT use stock in logo or illustration contests. In the same vein, tracing and vectorizing a photograph does not make it original.

Designers are allowed to use stock in non-logo contests as long as they declare it - this means designers must provide a link to the image source. Do not assume a client knows how to handle stock — you are the expert and you should inform them about purchasing the image.

Declaring stock on 99designs

When submitting an entry, designers are prompted with two options:

1. this is entirely my own original artwork
2. this contains design elements that are not my own

If the second option is selected, a menu will drop down:

Select “stock” and fill out the correct information:

1. stock name
2. the direct URL to the stock – not just the site it’s from
3. whether or not this image needs to be purchased

POOF! You’re done. Piece of cake, right?

Once a design is successfully uploaded, the declaration will appear on the designer’s private comments with any additional descriptions about the design.

Designers found violating this portion of the Stock and Clip-art Policy will face the same consequences as those who use stock in logo designs — a suspension or even a ban.

Using copyrighted materials without the proper permission is illegal and a designer can be held accountable. Furthermore, if a CH chooses a design which contains an image that has been inappropriately linked by the designer, or not linked at all, they may end up in unwanted circumstances warranting legal action.

Do you always declare stock? Thanks to those who do!

Job and Lily have a love for professional swimming and we are going to use one of Illustrator’s brilliant design tools to show off their skills — the clipping mask.

What is a Clipping Mask?

A clipping mask is a shape (called a clipping path) that masks any object below it, so only what’s inside of the clipping path is visible. A clipping path can only be a vector object, not a photo. However, the object below it can be anything – a raster photo, vector drawing, etc.

A few things to note about clipping masks:

• The clipping path must always be on top of the object you’d like to clip.
• You can only have one clipping path.
• However, one or more objects can be clipped.
• Clipped objects must be in the same layer or group.

By now you might be thinking… “What? I’m a visual learner.” Well I am too… so let’s demonstrate.

How to Make a Clipping Mask

In this demo, the clipping path will be the text of their names, Lily and Job. The objects we are going to clip will be images of them swimming. To start, we will do a clipping mask for Job.

A clipping mask can be made in a few different ways:

• Drop down Menu: Object > Clipping Mask > Make
• Shortcut Key: Command > 7
• Layer Panel: Make/Release Clipping Mask icon at the bottom
• Right click: highlight all objects and select Make Clipping Mask

In one layer, I have put Job’s name on top of his swimming photo. You can expand the layer view to see the text and object image separately:

Note: you can use different layers, as long as the clipping path layer is on top of the photo layer.

Once the images are properly arranged, click on Object > Clipping Mask > Make. You will notice that everything disappears except what is inside of the clipping path (Job’s name).

Cool and easy, huh?

If done correctly, incorporating photos into words can be cool for posters and book covers (or tutorials ;). 

Using Two or More Clipping Paths

Now, let’s do the same thing for Lily. Lily’s name needs to be altered so that her image fits nicely. When dealing with clipping masks, you will often find that either the clipping path or object underneath needs to be altered to fit together.

In this case, I want to edit the letters individually. First, I converted the text to outline so each letter can be edited. To convert text to outlines, click on Type > Create Outlines (shift>command>O) or by right clicking on the text and selecting Create Outlines.

Each letter has now become an object that can be edited but not like regular text. You will notice that anchor points appear on each letter — they can be moved and edited individually:

The outlined text is no longer one path (it’s now four paths: L I L Y). It will not clip correctly because remember, you can only have one clipping path.

Luckily, compound path allows several paths to be combined into one path. We can convert it to one path by highlighting Lily and selecting Object > Compound Path > Make (Command>8).

Now, highlight the compound path and photo, then select Object > Clipping Mask > Make:

Voilà! Lily is having some fun.

Compound Paths

As you saw, compound paths combine all selected paths into one. You can also use this tool to make some pretty cool designs quickly.

Play around with it by taking a few basic shapes and stacking them on top of each other. Then select Object > Compound Path > Make (Command>8):

This is three compound paths but each compound path has multiple shapes incorporated into it. 

Clipping Two or More Objects

Although, there can not be two or more clipping paths (without making them a compound path), you CAN clip two or more objects underneath.

I’ve made sure the photos of Lily and Job are on the same layer. I’ve also made sure they are placed underneath the clipping path: DOG LOVE.

Select Object > Clipping Mask > Make. I’ve made the images more visible by adding a black background.

Release or Edit a Clipping Mask and Compound Path

To release or edit a clipping mask, you can either:

• Select Object > Clipping Mask > Edit/Release
• Or edit by isolating the clipping mask: double click it or find it on the Layers Panel

Release or edit a compound path:

• Select Object > Compound Path > Release
• Or edit by isolating the compound path: double click it or find it on the Layers Panel

As you can see, clipping masks and compound paths are some pretty cool and easy tools that make designing that much more fun.

Thanks to Job and Lily for showing the community just how fun the clipping mask can be:

Note: The clipping path is JOB LILY and it’s clipping the graphic, THANKS. 

Make sure to keep an eye on our facebook and twitter@99designs for more Adobe tutorials.

What tools do you want to learn? Share in the comments!

It wasn’t always this way. Before personal computers and word processing, the process of both designing and printing fonts was a lot more cumbersome, limited by technologies that are now obsolete.

In the last post, we laid out the basic terms needed to describe typography. Soon, we will look at the evolution of typeface styles over the centuries, leading up to today’s ever-expanding array of digital letter forms. But because style and technology always progress hand-in-hand, another amazing history lesson must come first: the evolution of printing technologies, from Johannes Gutenberg to the PC.

Pre-digital type technologies

Handwriting and calligraphy, 3200 BC: a system of written language emerges in ancient mesopotamia. It is handwritten on parchment-like material.

Calligraphy in action; photo by Crypt K.

Woodblock printing, 220 AD: this technology, which emerged first in Asia, involved cutting a section of text into a single block of wood, dipping it in ink and pressing it onto paper to make copies. Once carved, the woodblock bears the text permanently.

Woodblock printing; photos by changecase and vlasta2

Movable type letterpress printing, 1040 AD (China)/1450 AD (Europe): metal font molds are produced for individual letters. Text is arranged manually, letter by letter, using a composing stick. The finished block of text is then inked and pressed onto paper. From there, the letters can be rearranged into new text and used again. This possibility of reuse makes printing much more efficient.

The famous European inventor of the technology is Johannes Gutenberg, and his invention is heavily credited for the information revolution that sparked the Renaissance and ensuing modern period. However, the technology existed in Asia a few centuries before.

A movable type tablet (top; photo by purdman1) and its most famous product: the Gutenberg bible (bottom; photo by NYC Wanderer )

Wooden font molds, 1800s: these are occasionally used for larger fonts, instead of the usual metal molds.

Continuous casting, 1890s: the linotype (line-o’-type) machine makes it possible to compose entire lines of type at once using a 90-character keyboard, instead of having to manually arrange a press letter by letter. The lines are cast in molten metal “on the fly” and then the letter molds are immediately ready for re-use, so the process can move along continuously.

This revolutionizes newspaper printing; previously, due to the time and labor constraints involved in letterpress printing, no newspaper was over 8 pages long!

The linotype machine (photos by shadfan66 and jdlasica)

Phototypesetting, 1950s: this machine projects light through a cut-out of a font character, onto a film that is then treated chemically to bear the mark permanently. This system has the advantage of scalability — magnifiers can be used to adjust the size of the type image freely, without having to bring in a new font cutout. Of course, digital vector technology would soon leave this advancement in the dust.

Phototypesetting (images from Luna’s Cafe and Wikipedia)

Digital typography (mid 1980s – present)

Bitmap (raster) fonts: a data file that contains glyphs in pixel form. Because it is not scalable like a vector, a bitmap font must contain many sets of pre-determined sizes (traditionally just 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 18, 24, 36, 48, and 72pt), each in every permutation of regular, bold, and italic.

Bitmap font formats: PCF, BDF, SNF, DWF, BF, AFM, FON, BMF, PSF, PK

A pixilated bitmap character (image from Wikimedia Commons) and bitmap files for 3 font sizes (image from JOT)

Outline (vector) fonts - sets of mathematically described lines and curves that trace the outline of glyphs. They are infinitely scalable without pixilation.

Vectorized font (image from Adobe)

And here we are! Tune in next week for our final installment on the evolution of typeface styles over the centuries.

Which printing technique is your favorite? Share it in the comments.