Space as Language
The Properties of Typographic Space

Focuses on the significance of space within typographic communication, and the manner in which typographic space embodies meaning.

Will Hill (Author)

9781009265430, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 24 August 2023

75 pages
27 x 18 x 0.7 cm, 0.15 kg

This Element examines the function and significance of typographic space. It considers in turn the space within letters, the space between letters, the space between lines, and the margin space surrounding the text-block, to develop the hypothesis that viewed collectively these constitute a 'metalanguage' complementary to the text. Drawing upon critical perspectives from printing, typeface design, typography, avant-garde artistic practice and design history, the Element examines the connotative values and philosophies embodied in the form and disposition of space. These include the values attributed to symmetry and asymmetry, the role of 'active' space in the development of modernist typography, the debated relationship between type and writing, the divergent ideologies of the printing industry and the letter arts, and the impact of successive technologies upon both the organisation and the perception of typographic space.

Introduction: Reading the Space
1. The Space within the Letter
2. The Space between Letters
3. Spaces between Words
4. The Space between Lines
5. Space and the Margin
6. Asymmetry and the Modernist Space
7. Typographic Space and the Visual Text
8. Typographic Space as a Metalanguage.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]