Containing: production systems, the
software and reproduction technologies required to produce and distribute
typographic work—influence what you can make, how you work, and how letter-forms
behave in any given context. Another descriptive system, typeface
classification, is one among many systems we call the semantics of the
profession. Classification systems lay out terms and categories that
professional typographers and type designers use to talk about in historical
and current type-design activity. Typographers, programmers, and users are
forever adapting the existing systems to suit their circumstances.
Measurement systems: typographic
measuring systems began with the letterpress, where uniformity is critical
because the sorts are physical. Today, some type-production software offers
what might seem an odd array of point sizes to choose from, however, the sizes
were standards back in the old days of metal sorts. Today software offers
several ways to size typefaces. Visual sliders and scaling tools are the least
precise, but enable us to size by eye.
Whys and why nots of type measure:
fewer fonts at larger sizes meant more economical use of material and space
resources. A full complement of point sizes from 2 to 96 in metal type would
have been impossible to produce or manage in the days of metal sorts. A 3-point
italic would have been rare. Massive sizes such as 576 pt metal type would have
been unthinkable. However, this did inspire the production of wood type. It was
lighter and cheaper than metal.
