[1][2] As a marketing manager for the British Monotype Corporation, she was influential in the development of printing tastes in Britain and elsewhere in the mid-twentieth century and was recognized at the time as "[o]ne of the few women typographers in the world".

While there she became acquainted with eminent typographers including Daniel Berkeley Updike and Stanley Morison, who later played a highly influential part in her professional life.

Beatrice Warde spent time investigating the origins of the Garamond design of type, and published the results in The Fleuron in 1926 under the pen-name "Paul Beaujon".

[a] Her conclusion that many typefaces previously attributed to Claude Garamond were in fact made ninety years later by Jean Jannon was a lasting contribution to scholarship.

[12][b] Warde later recalled she had amused herself imagining her 'Paul Beaujon' persona to be "a man of long grey beard, four grandchildren, a great interest in antique furniture and a rather vague address in Montparnasse.

"[14] She noted that the deception confused, but was not immediately suspected by other historians, who were surprised to read a work by a Frenchman in idiomatic English and mocking received wisdom by quoting from The Hunting of the Snark.

Working with Morison, Warde produced materials and lectures that connected British nationalist sentiment to the visual identity of corporations and functionalist views of efficiency.

[15] While aesthetically associated with "the new traditionalist" typographic movement, Warde made herself part of a larger campaign to raise the standards of commercial publishing by advocating "for the role of design in good management".

The essay was first delivered as a speech, called "Printing Should Be Invisible," given to the British Typographers' Guild at the St Bride Institute in London, on October 7, 1930.

[18][19] Like many of Warde's other writings, the essay was written with the intent to be spoken before printed, as she carefully considered the invocations of voice, presence, and personal connection while reading aloud.

Typically, design historians associate Stanley Morison as the source of "new traditionalist" ideas and "credit Beatrice Warde with spreading his influence.

and to that extent all good typography is modernist.Throughout the essay, Warde argues for the discipline and humility required to create quietly set, "transparent" book pages.

The Type Directors Club and Monotype offer a scholarship under her name for young women who demonstrate exceptional talent, sophistication, and skill in the use of typography.