Earlytype

Earlytype is a term used in typography and book history to designate the earliest forms of movable-type printing and the design language associated with early printed books. The term is not tied to a single historical source but is used by scholars to frame a category of practice.

Etymology and usage: Coined in modern scholarship, earlytype contrasts with later standardized typefaces developed in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. It encompasses both the technical apparatus of early typesetting—hand-set line composition, metal type, impression methods—and the aesthetic tendencies of early print, often including Blackletter scripts and the earliest Antiqua experiments.

Historical background: The Gutenberg press of the 1440s popularized movable type; earlytype practice featured metal type from hand-cast matrices, wooden blocks used to align pages, and a bespoke type plan for entire books. Type families were small, ligatures common, punctuation varied. In many regions, blackletter was prevalent, while some printers experimented with Latin, Greek, and vernacular types.

Modern context and interpretation: In contemporary design and scholarship, earlytype is used to discuss authenticity in reproduction, to study manuscript-to-print transitions, and to inspire revival typefaces that imitate early print aesthetics. It is also a focal point in cataloging incunabula and early printed editions.

See also: typography, incunabula, movable type, blackletter, Antiqua, printing history.