A History of Computer Typography

If you’re into typography or desktop publishing, this rather long article should be intresting to you. Here are a couple paragraphs and one of the pictures in the article. the other illustrations are more, um, picturesque.

Over its nearly 25-year history, lasting from 1981 to 2005, the Seybold Desktop Publishing Conference, also known as Seybold Seminars, don’t have the computer-history pedigree of massive tradeshows like Comdex or CES. It was a fairly narrow, niche affair, focused on the art of print design and the way that computers could push it forward.

But there was a time that technology giants took this event seriously, because of the outsize role that desktop publishing played in the computer industry at the time. In 1989, it was a niche that mattered.

And in 1989, it was where a schism between three brand-name technology companies appeared.

Tensions were high, as highlighted by what the CEO of one of those companies, Adobe cofounder John Warnock, reportedly said during a speech: “That’s the biggest bunch of garbage and mumbo jumbo. … What these people are selling you is snake oil!”

See the link at the end of this post to get the rest.

Here’s a link to the article: https://tedium.co/2023/07/26/digital-typography-technology-truetype-history