Information Design in Mass Communications

The hand-drawn process of illustrated manuscripts was slow and laborious, and had a limited audience. The invention of the printing press brought written communication to the masses, and was pivotal in the "communications revolution of the fifteenth century" and in the "three major movements of early modern times: the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the rise of modern science." (Eisenstein, 1983). Printing technology developed slowly, in different forms, over many centuries in many parts of the world. The first known printing presses were developed by the Chinese. Many of the concepts that exist today in communication design began with the early printing presses. If you have ever referred to a "font" or to the "leading" of a paragraph you are using terms that originated in the type-setting methods used in early forms of printing. •