typerætningen

Typerætningen is a Danish term that historically referred to the craft and process of arranging type for printed material. In broad terms, it describes the typographic act of selecting typefaces, sizes, and spacing, and arranging text into lines and pages to produce readable and aesthetically balanced compositions. The term combines “type” and a derivation of “ætningen” indicating setting or arrangement. In modern Danish, the standard terms are typografi (typography) and typesætning (typesetting), and typerætningen is seldom used except in historical contexts or dialectal usage.

Historically, typerætningen arose with the advent of movable type and the printing press, when printers would hand-set each line from individual metal sorts. The craft evolved through photo-composition and phototypesetting to digital typesetting, when much of the manual process was replaced by software workflows. Despite technological changes, the underlying principles—the choice of typeface, legibility, line length, leading, kerning, and alignment—remain central to typerætningen as a field.

Techniques and components include font selection, kerning, tracking, leading, margins, grid systems, and justification. Good typerætningen balances readability with visual hierarchy and brand voice, adapting to print and digital constraints and accessibility considerations.

See also: typography, typesetting, layout, font, kerning, leading.

The term remains primarily of historical or regional interest, while contemporary practice uses standard Danish terminology.