Like many of you here, I imagine, I think a lot about the historical development of type in terms of its forms and how it is made.
Metal type reigned for about 520 years, produced by hand for the first roughly 430 years, and then with machines for about 90 years. (I'm ignoring some overlap here and below.)
Phototype arose and became dominant within a span of about 50 years, all of it produced mechanically, with master artwork made by hand.
It was then replaced with digital type, which has now been around for about 50 years, dominant for about 30. All of it is produced on computers by human operators at the design and mastering stage.
What, if anything, comes after digital type? It seems to me that digital type is going be around a lot longer than phototype. (You could argue that digital type is really a form of phototype, especially in its early implementations. Nowadays, it doesn't seem to have much to do with photography, except perhaps for print, and even that is a stretch.)
It's hard for me to imagine anything as different as phototype was from metal type, or as digital type was from phototype. In other words, a new form beyond digital. The only developments I can envision have to do with design and production, which I believe will continue to become more automated, probably way beyond what we can imagine now. But it's hard to imagine the form of type changing again any time soon.
But I'm 60 now, and my life experience perhaps limits what I can imagine about the future. I was already an adult when the idea of owning your own computer was a novelty, and was in my early thirties when it became possible to use them to make fonts.
I would love to hear other peoples' perspectives on this.
Metal type reigned for about 520 years, produced by hand for the first roughly 430 years, and then with machines for about 90 years. (I'm ignoring some overlap here and below.)
Phototype arose and became dominant within a span of about 50 years, all of it produced mechanically, with master artwork made by hand.
It was then replaced with digital type, which has now been around for about 50 years, dominant for about 30. All of it is produced on computers by human operators at the design and mastering stage.
What, if anything, comes after digital type? It seems to me that digital type is going be around a lot longer than phototype. (You could argue that digital type is really a form of phototype, especially in its early implementations. Nowadays, it doesn't seem to have much to do with photography, except perhaps for print, and even that is a stretch.)
It's hard for me to imagine anything as different as phototype was from metal type, or as digital type was from phototype. In other words, a new form beyond digital. The only developments I can envision have to do with design and production, which I believe will continue to become more automated, probably way beyond what we can imagine now. But it's hard to imagine the form of type changing again any time soon.
But I'm 60 now, and my life experience perhaps limits what I can imagine about the future. I was already an adult when the idea of owning your own computer was a novelty, and was in my early thirties when it became possible to use them to make fonts.
I would love to hear other peoples' perspectives on this.