In the previous article "History of graphic design. Part 1. Origin" we touched on the main stages of the formation of graphic design and focused on ancient manuscripts that were distributed around the world until the end of the 15th century.
In this article, we will briefly consider another very important historical stage, affecting the era of the rapid development of book printing. It began in the 15th century and ended at the end of the 17th century. Typography, of course, existed before the 15th century, but it was during this period, since the invention of the printing press in Europe, that graphic design shaped typography, the basic laws of communication, fonts, and much more.
Many historians consider printing a major achievement in human history. It was she who made it possible to make a revolutionary breakthrough in the education of people and greatly reduce the labor intensity of making books.
The history of book printing goes back to ancient China. Back in the 2nd century AD. to create exact copies of the texts of the classical works of Confucianism, the Chinese began to use stone relief matrices. Wet sheets of paper were laid on them and then, with the help of a hard brush, they were pressed into the recesses of the stone matrix and wiped with a rag soaked in ink. So for the first time they began to receive the world's first copies of books identical to each other without the use of heavy handwritten labor. This type of printing was later called "embossed". Unfortunately, this method was not without drawbacks: stone matrices were difficult to manufacture and store, as they were large and weighed hundreds of kilograms. For example, to store stone matrices of just one work of Confucianism, an area of more than 5 hectares was required. That is why this technology spread in China extremely slowly.
Chinese relief stone matrix (left image) and print from it on paper (left image), Northern Qi Dynasty, 550–577 AD.
In the III century AD. During the Han Dynasty, along with relief printing, the "chop seal" began to develop, which was based on many small seals (stamps) called "chops". They were made by carving calligraphic signs on the surface of jade, silver, gold or ivory. By their principle of operation, these seals are absolutely similar to modern rubber stamps that many of us encounter in our daily lives. To form an imprint, the user pressed the chop print into the red ink and then pressed against the media (eg, paper, cloth, and the like). The names of their owners or the names of state institutions were carved on these seals, thanks to the impressions of these seals, the authenticity of the work was confirmed, documents were certified, collectors marked the objects that were in their possession. The only difference was that the print had white characters on a red background. It wasn't until the 15th century that Chinese artisans began making negative chops, in which the symbols turned red on a white background.
Until the 8th century, both types of printing, with the use of stone matrices and with the help of carved seals, prevailed in China and actively developed.
Chinese chop seal. A traditional Chinese identification stamp inscribed in the bottom of a small decorative sculpture carved from soft stone.
The Ram and the Goat, a handwritten horizontal scroll created from 1296 to 1359 by the Chinese artist Zhao Mengfu. Chopping seals were used to imprint the names of the owners or viewers of the painting.
In the 8th century, China began to export printing technology to Japan and Korea. On the basis of relief printing, a new type of printed graphics (xylography) began to develop in these countries, which allows printing images (engravings) with amazing accuracy and elegance. Woodcut technology consists in applying (cutting) the desired image onto a wooden surface with a sharp knife. This blank (master layout) was an analogue of the stone impressions mentioned above, but had a much smaller area and weight. To obtain a printed image, paint was applied to the master layout, and paper was applied on top under pressure. After complete drying, a fantastically detailed engraving appeared on the paper. Technologically, woodcuts turned out to be very simple and effective. Having adapted, an experienced printer could produce more than 200 prints per hour, which was a colossal breakthrough for those times.
According to literary sources, China is the birthplace of this type of graphics, but this is not known for certain. One of the earliest printed books that have come down to us using woodcuts, the Diamond Sutra, dates from May 11, 868. It consists of seven sheets of paper glued together in the form of a scroll about 5 m long and 30 cm high. Six sheets of text convey the revelations of the Buddha to his follower Subhuti, the seventh is an intricate line engraving depicting the Buddha and his disciples. It was printed by Wang Jie for wide and free distribution at the request of his parents.
Chinese Buddhist sacred book "Diamond Sutra". Tang Dynasty, 868 AD
In the X century, the development of woodcuts led to the creation of block printing, focused on printing characters and images on various media (fabric, thick paper, metal, and others). This type of printing made it possible to create paper and silk money, playing cards and much more. Of course, this all gave impetus to the development of graphic design.
The apogee of the Chinese contribution to printing was the creation in the 11th century by a simple blacksmith Bi Shen of typesetting printing. He reasoned that each hieroglyphic symbol should be placed on a separate clay form in the form of a cube (letter). The total number of such cubes must correspond to the number of existing hieroglyphs. This will unify the printing process and collect any text. The printing technology was very original. Burnt clay cubes with hieroglyphs were placed on a metal surface. They were attached to it with resin and wax. After their installation, the metal surface was heated, and a wooden board was placed on top, this made it possible to align all the cubes in height. Next, the page layout was cooled, and it was completely ready for use, it was only necessary to apply paint to the cubes and transfer it to the carrier. After printing was completed, the surface was heated again and the cubes were removed. This approach saved a lot of printing time and was subsequently used in Europe.
It is surprising that such a principle of typesetting was invented in China, where at that time there were more than 40 thousand hieroglyphs. Taking into account additional characters (spaces, lines, etc.), about 50 thousand clay letters were required for printing, and, consequently, the laboriousness of their production was simply colossal. That is why this technology could not be widely spread in China, unlike in Europe, where the alphabet consisted of only a few dozen characters.
Movable type invented by the Chinese printer Bi Sheng around 1040 during the Song Dynasty.
A large backlog in the field of typography, which was made by Eastern culture, gradually began to spread throughout the world and in the 15th century came to Europe, where it developed rapidly. In the medieval period, Europe simply needed printing. The reasons are simple: the demand for education grew rapidly, and after it the demand for books. At the same time, as noted in the last article, the books were very expensive. For example, it took an average of 5 months to create a simple 200 page book. scribe's work and 25 sheepskins needed for parchment. At the same time, its cost was comparable to the cost of a small farm or vineyard. This led to the fact that in 1424 there were only 122 manuscript books in the Cambridge University Library, while the number of students steadily increased. That is why in Europe they sought to reduce the cost of book production.
The first trial works in Europe using woodcuts included playing cards and religious prints, which were intended to be used as an affordable alternative to costly paintings. In addition, small religious books consisting of several pages began to be produced for the education of illiterate people. They printed engravings on religious themes, mainly related to the Apocalypse and the preparation of man for death. It is noteworthy that they were very similar in design to modern comics, and in fact they were the first example of printed propaganda, as they encouraged people to give up their savings and bequeath their property to the church.
Left: Playing cards, uncut sheet of woodcut (detail) circa 1400. Right: Saint Christopher, woodcut, unknown illustrator, 1423.
For the middle and prosperous class, books were made separately, their volume, as a rule, did not exceed 50 sheets. In terms of design, they still used manual labor: woodcut prints were painted by hand, metal tinsel, wooden inserts, inlay with colored quartz crystals and flocking (applying textile fibers to book elements) were used as book decoration elements.
With the advent of cheap (compared to parchment) paper in Europe, all book publishers sought to mechanize the process. “Artificial writing”, as printing was then called, began to be practiced in Germany, the Netherlands, France and Italy. The exact birthplace of printed books has not yet been determined. In the Netherlands, it is believed that printing was invented by Laurens Janszoon Coster, although there is no scientific evidence for this, and this claim is based on oral tradition. In France, a certain Procopius Waldfoghel is considered the discoverer, who was engaged in the production of steel letters of the alphabet and taught “the secrets of artificial writing” for money.
Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg, a German typographer from Mainz, is currently officially recognized as the founder of book printing in Europe. There is reason to believe that Gutenberg and Waldfogel are the same person. In any case, the fact that it was Gutenberg who began using movable type for printing around 1439 is undeniable. His invention consisted of steel characters, which he typed by hand into rows, columns and pages, and then with a special press made their impression on paper. As you can see, the technology is very similar to Bi Shen's technology used back in the 11th century.
Due to the high costs of developing book production technology, Gutenberg was constantly in need of money. The main creditor was Johannes Fust, who later played a sad role in the fate of Gutenberg.
The first step was for Gutenberg to choose the font he would use when printing. He chose the classic square texture font (a type of Gothic writing) as it was most commonly used by German scribes of the time. His main goal was to achieve the identity of printed characters with the hand-written characters of calligraphers. In the manufacture of letters, Gutenberg improved this font-texture, trying to get closer to the handwritten practice of scribes, he created variations in the pattern for the same letter. The Gutenberg font had 150-300 different characters, instead of a minimum of 60-70 characters.
Movable type by Johannes Gutenberg, invented around 1450
Gutenberg experimented a lot and gained experience in the field of printing. Initially, he wanted to completely abandon the manual labor of scribes and illustrators. On the same page, he had to sequentially print first black text, then color, and at the end engravings and ornaments using woodcuts. In practice, he realized that such an approach was unacceptable due to the high labor intensity, and decided to come to grips with only printing letters. The work was extremely difficult, but Gutenberg achieved his success. One of his best printed works is a book called by historians the 42 Line Bible or the Gutenberg Bible. In it, he embodied all his technological achievements. Many modern typographers and designers are surprised by the identity of a printed and handwritten book. This book is a two-volume book with a total of 1282 pages. On the first 9 pages there were 40 lines each, on the tenth page there were already 41 lines, and on the subsequent pages - already 42 lines each. It is difficult to say whether this was originally intended, or whether Gutnberg later decided to save money and increase the number of lines per page. For decoration, he left empty spaces, which were drawn up by scribes. The circulation was 210 copies, 180 of which were printed on paper, and 30 on parchment.
The Gutenberg Bible (42-line Bible) issued by Johannes Gutenberg in the first half of the 1450s. individual pages of the book.
Gutenberg Bible (42-line Bible), a copy kept in the University Library of Kassel.
Unfortunately, for Guttenberg, the whole story did not end well. In 1455, the Gutenberg Bible was almost finished, but Fust suddenly sued Gutenberg for the return of all the debt. Due to the lack of money, the court takes the side of Fust and arrests the printing house. Subsequently, the enterprising Fust quickly concludes a contract with Gutenberg's assistant Peter Schöffer (Peter Schöffer) and in 1457 completes work on the Gutenberg Bible and the Psalter.
Things were going uphill and Fust and Schöffer later published a Latin Bible, works of Cicero, printed leaflets and pamphlets. In parallel, Fust traveled around Europe (mainly to France) and sold printed books, causing genuine interest among local residents (many of them saw in Fust the magician-scientist Faust, the protagonist of the classical German legend), and entrepreneurs - the desire to capitalize on new technology.
Ironically, the rapid spread of printing was facilitated by the bloody conflict. The German nobles were involved in a power struggle that escalated into a full-scale war. Leading a significant army, Adolf II of Nassau (Adolf von Nassau-Wiesbaden-Idstein) in 1462 collapsed and sacked the city of Mainz, which was then the epicenter of printing in Europe. Looting and looting led to the fact that many printers and their students fled to other cities and countries, taking with them some of the equipment and knowledge.
The Mainz Psalter (German: Mainzer Psalter) was printed in 1457 by Peter Schaeffer and Johann Fust, commissioned by the Archbishop of Mainz. individual pages of the book.
Cicero On Duties. The book was printed in 1465 by Peter Schaeffer and Johann Fust. individual pages of the book.
Printers who fled from Germany began to settle in other cities of Europe in order to continue their profitable business. They were especially amazed by the Italian masters, who made a great contribution both to art in general and to graphic design in particular. Of all the places in Italy, Venice was the most suitable for printing. It was there that the German printers set up their printing houses and established a monopoly on the printing of books, which fell only in 1470. This was taken advantage of by the young French printer Nicolas Jenson, who was at that time in Venice and opened his printing house.
Jenson's personality is very interesting. He was considered one of the foremost designers of typefaces, and he studied typography in Mainz, Germany. During his prolific life, Jenson developed various variations of Roman, Greek and Gothic fonts that looked extremely organic in the text. When creating his fonts, he carefully chose letter spacing (kerning) and the shape of the letters to create an even tone and harmony throughout the page. Among more than 150 published books, from the point of view of type design, “Preparation for the Gospel” (De Praeparatio Evangelica) by Eusebius of Caesarea is valuable.
Eusebius of Caesarea "Preparation for the Gospel" (De Praeparatio Evangelica), Venenia, 1470
To identify their books, many printers began to develop their own trademarks. At first they used textual and geometric symbols, and then moved on to heraldry.
Another German publisher who worked in Venice is Erhard Ratdolt. He was able to print in full in 1476 the color book "Calendarium", without the involvement of scribes and illustrators. It was the first book to have a fully printed title page, containing diagrams of solar and lunar eclipses using black and yellow, and red ink to highlight the desired passage of text. Ratdolt was interested in mathematics and astronomy, so it is not surprising that the books he published are mostly scientific. His main masterpiece in terms of graphic design is Euclid's Elements, printed in 1482. For its time, it was revolutionary: the use of various colors in printing, the clarity of decorations, ornaments, geometric shapes and patterns - these are the few things that make designers be surprised today.
Left: Regiomontanus (Johann Müller) "Calendar", Venice, 1476. Title page. Right: Euclid's "Beginnings", Venice, 1482. Title page.
Regiomontanus (Johann Müller) "Calendar", Venice, 1476 Separate pages of the book.
Regiomontanus (Johann Müller) "Calendar", Venice, 1476 Separate pages of the book.
Euclid "Beginnings", Venice, 1482 Separate pages of the book.
Euclid "Beginnings", Venice, 1482 Separate pages of the book.
Among the Italian printers, the printer Aldo Manuzio, who also worked in Venice, stands out. His main masterpiece was published in 1499 the novel by an unknown author Poliphili Hypnerotomachia. In this book, Manutius was able to achieve an elegant harmony of typography and illustration. The communicative coherence of illustrations with text and the exceptional integration of images and typography testify to the fact that when creating it, everyone (printer, type designer, as well as illustrator) worked in close cooperation with each other. By his order, unique typographic fonts "Bembo", "Poliphilus" were developed, which can still be found today.
In general, by the end of the 15th century, printing had captured most of Europe. For example, by 1500, about 140 cities in Europe already had their own printing houses, most of them were in Germany, Italy and France. For the first time, the number of books began to exceed the demand for them, Europe was inundated with religious books, as well as the works of ancient Greek and Roman philosophers. New types of printed products appeared: pocket books, posters, leaflets, brochures and the like. In terms of graphic design, the greatest contribution was undoubtedly made by Italian book printers. Floral decorations (flowers, vines, etc.) inherent in the Renaissance era were used as decorations for the pages of books. Compared to handwritten books, the design of printed pages shows more restraint, conciseness and minimalism. For the first time in print, pagination, cursive fonts, patterned capital letters composed according to strict mathematical laws, cast metal decorations, as well as innovative approaches to the layout of illustrations and fonts began to be used.
Hypnerotomachia Poliphila (lat. Poliphili Hypnerotomachia), a hermetic novel of the Renaissance, published by Aldus Manutius in 1499. Separate pages of the book.
At the beginning of the 16th century, the era of the Italian Renaissance began to fade after the sack of Rome by the French. In 1515, after the ascension to the French throne of Francis I, a new era in graphic design begins - the French Renaissance. Many book printers from Italy began to move to France, taking with them not only knowledge and experience, but also books. The French were amazed at the quality and elegance of Venetian books.
Among French printers during this period, two artists and type designers, Geoffroy Tory and Claude Garamond, stand out. They worked together on the design of many books, and their innovative contribution to graphic design is so great that book printers used their designs until the 18th century.
Tory had a lot of knowledge and was very fond of book design. One of his discoveries was the design of capital letters in books: he placed them in a square and carefully selected floral designs for them. They greatly enlivened the design of the pages of many books.
Tory's successes really began to be recognized after the publication in 1525 of a series of books "Book of Hours in the Name of the Most Holy Theotokos." In them, he fully revealed his talent as an engraver. The ornaments, frames and illustrations he created are harmoniously woven into the text. Due to the use of thin lines, they are perceived very easily and elegantly.
In 1529, Tory published his own three-volume Champ Fleury, in which he veiledly shared his experience and told the basic laws in the field of book design and the creation of types. In this three-volume book, he discusses the history of Latin letters, comparing them with the proportions of the human body, and also gives instructions for the correct geometric construction of French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew letters.
For his great contribution to printing, King Francis I in 1530 called him "the printer of the King of France."
"Book of Hours in the Name of the Most Holy Theotokos", 1549 Separate pages of the book.
Geoffroy Tory "Flowering Meadow" (Champ Fleury), 1529 Separate pages of the book.
Geoffroy Tory "Flowering Meadow" (Champ Fleury), 1529 Separate pages of the book.
Claude Garamond was an excellent type designer and worked with Tory in his printing house until 1530. For his books he perfected Roman types. Subsequently, he created several italics for Greek fonts. Garamond's artistic talent is as great as his colleagues Tory. In 1546, Jacques Kerver used his fonts for a French-language reprint of Poliphili Hypnerotomachia. Garamond's type design was so beautiful from an aesthetic point of view that for two hundred years (from 1550 to the mid-1750s) most typographers used his types, only slightly refining and changing their forms.
In 1562, the conflict between the French authorities and the church ended in a massacre. In fact, the outbreak of war put an end to the golden age of French typography. Many French Protestant printers fled to Switzerland, England and the Netherlands (especially to the cities of Antwerp and Amsterdam) to escape religious strife, censorship and harsh laws.
Hypnerotomachia Poliphila (lat. Poliphili Hypnerotomachia), French-language edition of Jacques Kerver, 1546 Separate pages of the book.
Hypnerotomachia Poliphila (lat. Poliphili Hypnerotomachia), French-language edition of Jacques Kerver, 1546 Separate pages of the book.
By the end of the 16th century, the technology of woodcuts had changed a little: copper engravings began to come into use instead of wood engravings. This allowed for more accurate illustrations in books. The design of fonts and ornaments developed rapidly. Books became a mass phenomenon, and the clergy ceased to be a monopoly in the field of education.
The 17th century was quieter for graphic design. In this century, the spread of printing throughout the world comes to the fore, for example, the first printing presses appear in America. Obviously, the fonts, illustrations, ornaments, and design laws developed earlier for typographic products completely satisfied the majority of book printers, so additional innovations during this period were unnecessary.
Publication date: 14 April 2021