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
YOUR GOAL
Master of The secret life of letters and how they rule your brain
Ch 1 · The global race to press print
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.
streetspirit In 1377, Korean monks printed the Jikji, the world's oldest surviving book made with movable metal type.
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?
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?
streetspirit Traditional print shops organized metal letters in wooden type cases.
Quiz
Why do we use the terms 'uppercase' and 'lowercase' to describe capital and small letters?
Quiz
What Gothic, heavy font style did Johannes Gutenberg use for his famous 1455 Bible?
Quiz
Which material did Bi Sheng use to create the world's first movable type system in 1040s China?
Fun fact
Storing capital letters above small ones changed how we describe letter sizes.