Typography

This is perhaps the most ambiguous term of all, the broadest definition due to the apparent confusion. Very often, it is used as a synonym for font, font family or even replacing the term for letter. Before the typographic revolution introduced by computers, the word typography was a synonym for the printing press, the art of printing or the art of assembling a book thanks to cast metal type pieces.

In the contemporary context of typographic arts – and on the latter articles of this blog – we understand the concept of typography as defined by Maria Moliner on the Dictionary of Spanish Usage (DUE), “a group characteristics of types (letters) which will make up a text”.

Or rather, as explained by Martinez de Sousa in his Dictionary of sciences and bibliography, “the general aspect of a text depending on the type (of letters) employed in its composition”.

To summarize, typography is a group characteristics, which will decide on the overall aspect of a text, from the point of view of shape/design of letters. This includes: the aesthetic look of a book, which in turn incorporates the fonts and styles used to achieve this result.

De Sousa differentiates the kinds of typography, according to their properties and usage. The invisible typography is the one used in fiction, where there is little or no variation for the eye, the overall shape or style of a letter, aside from some words in italic or some explanations from the author. Whereas, a structured typography is used in informative and complex texts, in which its “typography representations, unlike invisible typography, permits the use of various font families, collections of letters, different sizes, bold, condensed, light, oblique, italic, underlined styles, to be used in tables or columns, etc…” The other kinds of typography are: digital and bibliographic.