The invention of lithography influenced the construction of typography:
lithographers' strongly decorated lettering and ornaments were copied by
the punch-cutters ; printers vied with each other in trying to copy the styles
of lithography - a totally different process - by typogra phic means. The
artificial linear mannerisms of the seventies. the boxes and borders of the
eighties. and the horrible "artistic" printing of the nineties were the last
stages of the decline. Hand in hand with this decline in the general appear
ance of printed matter went the decline in typefaces. The Franziisische
Antiqua and Medievai-Antiqua (popular in the ceventies during a vogue for
the Renaissance) t?ecame insipid. colourless. and formless. Our ordinary
roman types in use today originated at this time.
There were severa l reasons for this general decline. The fact that its origin
coincides with the beginnings of the machine age points to its deeper
causes. The inventions of lithography and photography, of photolithography
Example of "freie Richtung" ("artistic printing")
From the folder of the "International Graphic Des1gn-Exchange
of the German Pr�ntmg Association"" (1889)