Chapter 1
The global race to press print
Chapter 2
The secret anatomy and psychology of letters
Chapter 3
Fonts that rule our streets and skies
Chapter 4
The modern battles of digital type
Ch 1 · The global race to press print
neshiajoseph Movable type in 1450 capitalized on how human brains instantly recognize positive words
streetspirit The Global Printing Race
Printed first, printed first, Korea did it seventy years before!
streetspirit Johannes Gutenberg invented a secret metal alloy for his printing press.
streetspirit In 1450, Johannes Gutenberg perfected a secret metal alloy that made mass-producing books in Europe possible.
neshiajoseph The 1400s printing boom forced human minds to build entirely new reading circuits.
BETA
streetspirit Arrange the metal letters to discover how typography secretly shapes the way we think.
Fun Fact
Ancient metal type: The world's oldest surviving book printed with movable metal type was produced in Korea in 1377, decades before Gutenberg.
Glossary
movable type (noun)
A system of printing and typography that uses individual, reusable components to reproduce the elements of a document. Korea developed the world's first metal movable type in 1234, over two centuries before Gutenberg's European press.
A system of printing and typography that uses individual, reusable components to reproduce the elements of a document. Korea developed the world's first metal movable type in 1234, over two centuries before Gutenberg's European press.
Quiz
Which three metals did Johannes Gutenberg combine to create his revolutionary printing alloy?
streetspirit In 1377, Korean monks printed the Jikji, the world's oldest surviving book made with movable metal type.
Quiz
Which city became the global capital of printing and type design in the late 15th century, producing the first Roman typefaces?
streetspirit Korean artisans invented the world's first movable metal type printing
Quiz
In traditional letterpress printing, what hard metal is used to carve the original master model of a letter?
Quiz
Why do we use the terms 'uppercase' and 'lowercase' to describe capital and small letters?