What is the common history of typefaces?

I am answering this question based on Roman characters which are phonetic based characters rather than logograms, because typography extends to languages like Chinese, Japanese and Hindi as well.

There is no definite answer I suppose because type and language evolved drastically since The Sumerians and Egyptians were communicating through cave drawings and markings. In my opinion, The phonogram based Phoenician alphabet of twenty-two characters probably has a large influence on the evolution of Roman characters since Phoenicia (present Lebanon and Syria) was an important region of trade. The language and writing was adopted by travelling merchants which helped to spread the use. The other two alphabet system I can think of would be Greek and Semitic simply because of the dominance of their civilization. Greek which came from Greece and we all know about Alexander the Great and the amount of land he conquered and Semitic which is of Middle Eastern origin.

First answer by Duke Law. Last edit by Duke Law. Contributor trust: 0 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 1 [recommend question]