nabotypography
delivering the nuts & bolts of typography
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Timeline Of Typography
Long Long Ago...
15,000-10,000 BC Cave Paintings Cave paintings at Lascaux were the first human communication through simple drawings that were made up of signs and / or simple figures carved in to rock.
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3600 BC Blau Monument The Blau Monument combines images and early writing.
3100 BC Early Sumerian pictographs The Sumerians developed a system of writing that is today known as cuneiform. The "written" language was a combination of symbols, shapes, and objects that represented actual things. Over time the pictograms began to look simpler and they represented sounds and / or abstract concepts. The pictographs were drawn into clay tablets that were then harden by baking them in a kiln.
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3100 BC Hieroglyphic Script The start of the development of Hieroglyphic script, Hieroglyphs were known to the Egyptians as "The words if God"
3100 BC King Zet's ivory tablet King Zet's ivory tablet is the earliest Egyptian pictographic writing.
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3000 BC Papyrus Paper Used In Egypt Papyrus paper was used in Egypt Papyrus "paper" is simply the papyrus reed that grew along the river Nile, and Egyptians used this to write upon. The word paper comes from papyrus.
2900 BC Cylinder seals A cylinder seal is engraved with type characters and / or illustrative figures, they were used by rolling them into and along wet clay to make an impression in relief.
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2500 BC Wedge-Shaped Cuneiform INFORMATION
2500 BC Indus script INFORMATION
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2345 BC Pyramid Texts In Tomb Of Unas INFORMATION
2000 BC Early Cretan Pictographs Phaistos Disk INFORMATION
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1800 BC Tsang Chieh Invents Writing INFORMATION
1750 BC
Law Code of Hammurabi
The Law Code of Hammurabi is a Babylonian law code that has been beautifully conserved and it is one of the oldest pieces of writing of a vast length to be deciphered.
The Code of Hammurabi was etched on clay tablets and the Code of Hammurabi contains 282 laws that the people of Mesopotamia had to abide by.
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1700 BC Phaistos Disc INFORMATION
1500 BC Oracle Bone Script Oracle bone script is the earliest Chinese writing on record. Chinese characters were etched into turtle shells, and animal bones, these oracle bones were used by court officials for fortune telling.
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1500 BC Ras Shamra Script INFORMATION
1500 BC Hieratic Script The script was used along side hieroglyphic script; while the two are similar hieratic script is a more simplified version that would have been used for every day use such as record keeping and writing correspondence. The script was written horizontally from right to left and it was mainly written with ink on papyrus paper.
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1420 BC Papyrus of Ani Is a manuscript that is written on papyrus paper, it is said to be the most longest piece of work that has been found from the Egyptian times.
1300 BC Book of The Dead The book of the Dead, was what the Egyptains called: The Chapters of Coming Fourth by Day. Or: "Reu nu pert em hru". It is a collection of magic spells that were said to help the deceased through their afterlife.
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1000 BC Bronze Script Chinese characters that developed into Bronze script, the name came from the script being used on bronze pots and other bronze items.
1000 BC Early Greek Alphabet The Greeks worked on the Phoenician language and developed it; this became the beginning of our modern alphabet. The Greeks added the first vowels to the alphabet, however their language did not have punctuation, lowercase letters or spaces between words.
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850 BC Aramaic Alphabet INFORMATION
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400 BC Demotic Script Also known as Popular script was a variant from the Hieratic script which was developed. It was used to writing legal / business documents, scientific work and religious papers.
250 BC Small Seal Script Also known as Lesser Seal Script is a form of Chinese calligraphy.
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197 BC Rosetta Stone Is a stone with three types of scripts written on it, they are: hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek. The Rosetta Stone is said to be the key for understanding and deciphering ancient Egyptian writing.
105 AD Ts'ai Lun Invents Paper Ts'ai Lun was a Chinese servant that used to have to carry around his master's heavy wooden blocks. (The wooden blocks were used as paper at the time). Ts'ai Lun realised that rags and fishnets were made up of tiny fibres; he also noted that the bark of mulberry trees and hemp plants were also made up of tiny fibres. He took the rags, fishnets, bark, and hemp and he boiled them in a kettle, he beat them until they became a thick liquid that he then poured onto a flat screen. All the tiny fibres spread out across the surface of the screen and once the water was pressed out and the sun had dried the fibres, they formed a think sheet, which could then be written on.
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114 AD Trajan's Column Trajan's column was built in honour of the Emperor Trajan. The column is carved with figures that show the story of Trajan's victory in the Dacian war. At the top of the column is a statue of Trajan upon a horse.
165 AD Confucian Classics Carved In Stone INFORMATION
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250 AD Greek Unicals INFORMATION
300 AD Chops Are Used As Identifying Seals Chops Used In Han Dynasty
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394 AD Last Hieroglyphic Inscription INFORMATION
400 AD Ink Was Invented Ink was invented from lamp-black, the ink was used in China for brush writing and also wood block printing.
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500 AD Early Arabic Alphabet INFORMATION
500 AD Uncial Letter Forms INFORMATION
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600 AD Half-Uncial Style INFORMATION
600 AD Insular Script INFORMATION
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680 AD Book Of Durrow INFORMATION
698 AD Lindisfarne Gospels INFORMATION
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751 AD Arabs Learn Papermaking The Arabs learn how to make paper from Chinese prisoners.
770 AD
Early Chinese Relief Printing
The Chinese experimented with wooden blocks that they carved designs into, the raised surface of the design would be coated in ink and would be printed, and the areas that had been cut away would not be printed.
The ink used was created by burning oil; an iron saucer was placed on top of the blackened oil. When the saucer was coated in a layer of soot it was scrapped of and mixed with tree sap, this mixture was used as ink.
The wooden block with the pre-carved design would have a layer of the ink applied to it and then pressed down on to the paper.
This type of printing is also known as letter press.
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781 AD Caroline Miniscule Also known as Carolingian was a system of writing founded by Charlemagne. Caroline Miniscule were the first lowercase letters.
800 AD Book of Kells The Book of Kells is an Irish calligraphy publication, it is an illuminated manuscript of the four gospels of the New Testament.
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868 AD The Diamond Sutra Is Printed The Diamond Sutra is the earliest dated printed publication, which is of great importance to the Buddhist faith.
1035 Paper First Recycled INFORMATION
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1040
Chinese Invent Movable Type
The Chinese felt that the wooden relief printing was slow so they started to carve letters / symbols in clay, which was then baked until it was hard. Hundreds of these clay letters were made, to use them they were inked up and paper was pressed down on to them. The letters could be rearranged to form words and sentences.
The carved letters are called type and because they can be moved and rearranged they are called movable type.
The Chinese language is made up of over forty thousands letters or symbols, so even though the movable type sped up the process of printing it still took many months to print a single Chinese book.
1040 Korea Invent Movable Type Pi Sheng invents movable type in Korea.
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1241 Koreans Print Books With Movable Type INFORMATION
1298 Marco Polo Witnessed Paper Money Printing It is reported that during Marco Polo's trip to China he witnessed paper money being printed.
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1309 Europeans First Make Paper INFORMATION
1400 Woodblock Printing In Europe INFORMATION
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1423 Earliest Dated European Woodblock Print The woodblock print depicts St Christopher bearing the infant Christ.
1450 Guttenberg Perfects Typographic Printing Johann Guttenberg was the first person in Europe to use movable type printing, and was the inventor of the printing press.
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1452 Gutenberg's Bible Textura Movable type designed by Gutenberg.
1455 42 Line Bible Is Completed It is completed by Gutenberg and Fust.
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1469 First Printing Press In Venice Which was set up by Johann de Spira.
1470 First Roman Style Type Nicholas Jenson produced the first Roman typeface. Nicholas Jenson is known as one of the greatest typeface designers.
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1470 First Printing Press In France INFORMATION
1472 William Caxton Becomes Intrigued By Typography Caxton was on a business trip in Bruges, Belgium and saw that they had printed the first English book. He opened a printing shop in London near Westminster Abbey but as there was no English type in England, Caxton had to make his own. Caxton began to standardised English words, this made it possible for English speaking people to read.
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