Printing History and Culture Script, Print Letterforms in Global Contexts

This volume presents nine essays that explore critical perspectives and fresh approaches toward the study of the visual and material aspects of print in diverse linguistic environments; whether handwritten, lithographed, typographically printed, or digitally manifested. The global history of text-based communication constitutes a particularly exciting facet of material culture, given the myriad ways in which its production, transmission, and consumption has been – and continues to be – accomplished across cultural and political boundaries. However, a critical engagement with script and print outside the western world has remained relatively limited to summaries and generalisations, despite a burgeoning interest in the interrelated areas of printing, publishing, design, and type histories. The time is long overdue for these narratives relating to the material production of text to expand, and address the rich variation and particularity of global practices. Covering a variety of scripts and linguistic contexts, this volume explores the plurality of historical and contemporary engagements with, and interpretations of the printed and written word in various artefacts, printing technologies, and writing systems. Part of the Printing History and Culture series by the Centre for Printing History and Culture, this book presents critical perspectives and fresh approaches toward the study of the visual and material aspects of print in diverse linguistic environments – whether handwritten, lithographed, typographically printed, or digitally manifested.