Type design
A typeface differs from other modes of graphic production such as handwriting and drawing in that it is a fixed set of alphanumeric characters with specific characteristics to be used repetitively.
Historically, these were physical elements, called sorts, placed in a wooden frame; modern typefaces are stored and used electronically.
Gutenberg's most important innovation in the mid 15th century development of his press was not the printing itself, but the casting of Latinate types.
The casting material was an alloy usually containing lead, which had a low melting point, cooled readily, and could be easily filed and finished.
In those early days, type design had to not only imitate the familiar handwritten forms common to readers, but also account for the limitations of the printing process, such as the rough papers of uneven thicknesses, the squeezing or splashing properties of the ink, and the eventual wear on the type itself.
Beginning in the 1890s, each character was drawn in a very large size for the American Type Founders Corporation and a few others using their technology—over a foot (30 cm) high.
During this time, type design made a similar transition from physical matrixes to hand drawn letters on vellum or mylar and then the precise cutting of "rubyliths".
Rubylith was a common material in the printing trade, in which a red transparent film, very soft and pliable, was bonded to a supporting clear acetate.
Placing the ruby over the master drawing of the letter, the craftsman would gently and precisely cut through the upper film and peel the non-image portions away.
The resulting letterform, now existing as the remaining red material still adhering to the clear substrate, would then be ready to be photographed using a reproduction camera.
This process occurred rapidly: by the mid-1990s, virtually all commercial type design had transitioned to digital vector drawing programs.
Each glyph design can be drawn or traced by a stylus on a digitizing board, or modified from a scanned drawing, or composed entirely within the program itself.
The counter is an integral element in Western typography, however this concept may not apply universally to non-Western typographic traditions.
When designing letterforms, characters with analogous structures can be grouped in consideration of their shared visual qualities.
Typefaces usually have a default medium, or regular, weight which will produce the appearance of a uniform grey value when set in text.
A proportion of writing systems are bicameral, distinguishing between two parallel sets of letters that vary in use based on prescribed grammar or convention.
Bicameral writing systems may have typefaces with unicase designs, which mix uppercase and lowercase letterforms within a single case.
