Digital Typography As We Know It

At an earlier point in time, typography was a specialized occupation. Digitalization made type “compact to load, easy to create, familiar to use, and compatible with all computing platforms” (Butterick 39). “Whether you browse the World Wide Web, flip through a magazine or newspaper, pick up a product box, or look up at a billboard, chances are the images and text were created with one or more Adobe products” (Entrepreneur).

So how did John Warnock and Charles Geschke, the creators of Adobe Systems Inc., impact the world of digital typography and graphic design as we know it?

Adobe revolutionized digital typography with the implementation of PostScript language. PostScript language, “the first printing software that enabled users to print pages that included text, line art, and digitized photos,” was made an industry standard when Adobe made it public domain (Entrepreneur). “Before PostScript, typesetting was only possible if you bought a system along with a special device, which was incompatible with any other devices. Personal computers could be connected to dot-matrix printers that printed low-quality characters” (Product Habits).

In partnership with Apple and Aldus Corp., Adobe played an important role in the start of desktop publishing and digital type. Figure 1, below, is an example of how the PostScript language functioned in PageMaker software on a Macintosh because of this partnership. Although this partnership did not last forever, it allowed the three companies to create “software and…