The Gutenberg Press | 1450 AD

What is Johannes Gutenberg credited with?
-with inventing the technology of printing with moveable type.

Post a photo of the Gutenberg Press.




















How did the printing press work? 
-hand press-ink was rolled over the raised surface of movable hand set block letter held within a wooden form, then form was pressed against a sheet of paper.

What motivated Gutenberg to find a better way of creating books?
-his love of reading motivated him to find a better way to create books.

Why did Gutenberg experiment with metal type versus wood type?
-woodcuts were not durable 
Post an example of movable type in a type case.


















What is moveable type?
-movable type is the system of printing that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document.

What is a matrix?
-can be reused so the same character appearing anywhere within the book will appear very uniform.

What ink did Gutenberg develop that he used specifically for the printing press?
-oil based ink was more durable than water based ink and it was oily varnish-like ink made out of soot, turpentine, and walnut oil.
What is paper made from? Where did paper originate?
-paper was made from wood pulp and originated in China.

What is a "substrate"?
-Paper

Who did Gutenberg seek to help with the invention of the press? Close to the end of the 5 years, what happened? 
-John Fust a wealthy business man, to invest after 5 years Fust would get the press, tools, and materials.
What was the first book he printed?
-The Bible
Post an example of this book.


















How did the Gutenberg Press impact communication?
-People could send letters and communicate during wars because now paper was cheap .

Who introduced the printing press to England?
-Milliam Caxton
What was the early form of newspapers?
-trade newsletters

When was the first news weekly published? What was it called?
-The Boston Letter, the First American weekly.

What kind of press was built in the US in the mid 1800s?
-press made out of cast iron.

Post an example of a 1930s printing press.






















By the late 1930s, presses had increased in efficiency and were capable of 2,500 to 3,500 impressions per hour. What is meant by "impression"?
-the letters

Which printing process is the Gutenberg press an example of? Briefly describe the process?
-the typewrite the letters that you type are inked and when you type the letter press down on a piece of paper and when your done you take the paper out.

Post an example of an intaglio press.

What is intaglio printing and how is ink transferred? 
-image area is etched into the plate surface to hold the ink, the ink is applied, then rubbed with a cloth to remove the excess then damp paper is placed on top and a press applies pressure to transfer the ink into the paper.

Post an example of a screen (porous) printing press.

What is porous printing and how is ink transferred?
-was a basic stencil process in which the image carrier is attached to a screen then the ink is forced through open mesh areas.
Post an example of a lithography printing press.

What is lithography and how is ink transferred?
-is printing from a flat surface, based on the concept that oil and water do not readily mix.

Post an example of a offset lithography printing press.

What variation of lithography is used by the commercial printing industry today?
-most commercial printing is printed with a similar form of the lithography process called offset lithography.
How do printing presses used today compare to the Gutenberg Press?
-for newspapers we still use ink based printing.

Describe four-color process printing using CMYK?
-cyan, magenta, yellow, and black

The Codex and the Illuminated Manuscript | 1st century AD

Post an example of a scroll.

What were the drawbacks of the scroll?

-They only allowed for sequential usage.

What is a codex?
-Covered and bound collection of hand written pages.

Post an example of a codex.

"Codex" is derived from the Latin meaning "block of wood". Why?
-A book with a bound.

What is the difference between "sequential access" and "random access"?
-The codex can offer random access at any page while the scroll was written so that you have to find the certain passage.

What were the advantages of using the codex?
-Compactness, slurdiness, and ease of reference.

What helped spread the use of the codex?
-The spread of codex is associated with the rise of Christianity.

What replaced papyrus? Describe the process used to create it?
-Parchment a substrate made from animal skin such as sheep, goats, and cows. The process to create it was to remove the hair and fat and smooth the skin out the soak the hair in water and add calcium, salt, and flour then strech the skin out and flatten it.

What is vellum?
-Finer qualities of parchment that were made from skin of young calves.

Name several examples of current technology that utilizes the format of the codex?
-The Kindle and Ipad

What led to a period of cultural and economical deterioration?
-Around 450 BC the decline of the Roman Empire resulted in fewer books being created.

 

Post an example of an illuminated manuscript.

Who began creating books by hand, taking the creation to an art form?
-Monks created books by hand and the book itself became an art itself.

What does "illumination" refer to? What was included in this ornamentation?
-Refers to the borders, illustrations and ornamentaion added to each page.

What tool was used for creating the illuminated manuscripts?
-Natural quilt pens
Why were these manuscripts reserved for religious purposes?
-Because the work was very laborioius.

What is craftsmanship? Why is it important?

-the detailed work of the book was important because a great number has vanished due to various invasions

The Roman Alphabet | 7th century BC

What was the basis of the Roman uppercase alphabet?
-In the 7th century BC, the Romans used a variant of the Greek alphabet as the basis of the Roman uppercase alphabet.
What were the purposes of the formal and informal styles of lettering?
-A quicker, informal style was used for letters and routine types of writing.

Why is the Roman alphabet the most widely used and what contributions did it make?
-Serifs increased the legibility from the little hooks in the ends of the letters.

From where did serifs originate?
-Originated with the carving of words into stone.

When and where did lowercase, or minuscule, letters develop?
-Ancient Italy
What is a ligature and why were they utilized?
-Two letters that combine

Post an example of the Roman alphabet in visual form. -A rigid,  formal script was used for important manuscripts and official documents.

The Greek Alphabet | 800 BC

How did Greeks come in contact with the Phoenicians?
-Emerged around 800 BC with the rise of Ancient Greece.

How was the Greek adaptation of the alphabet different from its predecessor?
-Several of the consonants were adapted as vowels as well as additional letters were added.

Why is the Greek alphabet considered to be the world's first true alphabet?
-It has given rise to many other alphabets including the Latin alphabet.

Name several similarities and differences between the Greek and modern English alphabets?
-We both have consonants and vowels but Greek has more letters that were added.

Post an example of the Greek alphabet in visual form.

 

The Phoenician Alphabet | 1050 BC

The Phoenician alphabet is based on what principle?
-Based on the principle that one sign represents one spoken sound.

Describe the shape of the letters and what tool created them?

What two reasons made the Phoenician alphabet so successful?

What long term effects on the social structures of civilizations did the Phoenicians have with the creation of their alphabet?

-Long term effects on social structures of the civilizations which came in contact with it.

Post an example of the Phoenician alphabet in visual form.

-This simple system contrasted with other scripts at the time which used complex characters and the trading of the Phoenician spread the use of the alphabet into parts of North Africa and Europe.
-Most shapes are angular and straight and were insized with a stylist.

Hieroglyphics and the Egyptians | 3,000 BC

1. In the sixth century BC, Egypt was invaded by the Persians, Greeks, and the Romans.


2. Picture of the walls in temples.

3. Pyramids, tombs, and temples were discovered to honor their gods and inside they discovered carved and painted images on every wall and surface.


4. Scholars believed that Ancient Egyptians were influenced and inspired by Sumerians, Cuneiform and influenced by the concept of expressing words in writing.


5. Logograms were visual symbols representing ideas or objects and they were generally stylized and simplified while alphabetic or phonetic, variations came later as the language evolved into demotic.


6. The word Hieroglyphics came from two Greek words, Hiero meaning sacred and Glyphic meaning engraving or writing.


7. Scribes were priests who worked in the temples and could read and write instructions on the walls.


8. Military leaders were trained as scribes so that they can communicate while in battle.


9. Picture of hieroglyphics on papyrus

10. Papyrus is a substrate made from reeds native to Egypt and they were made by putting the wet reeds criss-cross over each other flattened and then dried, then they are rubbed with flat stones until the surface turned smooth.


11. Couldn't find what a substrate was.


12. Books of the Dead were commissioned by the users themselves before death.


13. Once the Persians ruled the few who could read and write died and nobody was taught or remembered how to read hieroglyphics.


14. Picture of the Rosetta Stone

15. French soldiers who were building a fort in Rosetta found a slab with inscriptions on it.

16. Egyptian, Demotic, and Greek were the three languages on the Rosetta Stone.

17. Nobody knew how to read hieroglyphics because of the Persian Control and a chunk was missing from it.

18. Champollion discovered that the inscription referred to King Ptolemy V Epiphanies at the same time of his coronation around 196 BC.

19. Because of the findings of the Rosetta Stone now we know the history of the Ancient Egyptians.

Cuneiform and the Sumerians | 3,000 BC

The Sumerians were one of the earliest types of this kind of civilization? What does that mean?
Why is the region of Sumer considered the Cradle of Civilization?
-Because it is where cuneiform was created.

 What could the Sumerians practice year round because of the regions climate?
-Year round agriculture.

Post an example of early Cuneiform (Sumerian pictograph).










Why was Cuneiform created?
-As their civilization increased and became more prosperous the amount of business transactions increased, they needed a way of keeping records.

What medium was used to "write" Cuneiform? Explain the process of preparing and writing on this surface?
-Clay, they wet the clay, form is into flat surfaces, then used a wedged shape stylus made from reeds to make impressions into the clays surface, then they have to put it out in the sun to dry and harden.
What did Cuneiform begin as a series of?
-Pictographs

Post an example of evolved Cuneiform (wedge-shaped).

After it evolved over time, what shape did the characters of Cuneiform evolve into?
-Wedged shape language.

Post an example of Akkadian Cuneiform.

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After the Akkadians conquered, what happened to the Sumerian culture and written language?
-Akkadians adopted to their culture and written language.

What is a pictograph?
-Pictures that are on clay or walls

Why did the creation of Cuneiform allow the Sumerians to become a sophisticated culture?
-Because they adopted their language which made them more sophisticated.

Visual Organization

A way that designers can make guidelines on how to organize your page.

Not directing the audience through a design is misleading them.

Eye Movement
-The typical eye moves left to right and top to bottom.
-Controlling eye movement within a composition is a matter of directing the natural scanning tendency of the viewers eye.
-The eye tends to gravitate towards areas of complexity first. In pictures of people, they eye is always attracted to the face and particularly the eye.
Light areas of a composition will attract the eye, especially when adjacent to a dark area.
-Diagonal lines or edges will guide eye movement.

Optical Center
-The spot where the human eye tends to enter the page. Optical center is slightly above mathematical center and just to the left.
- It takes a compelling element to pull your eyes away from the optical center.

Z Pattern
-Our visual pattern makes a sweep of the page, generally, in the shape of a Z.
-Effective page design maps a viewers route through the information. The designers objective is to lead the viewers eye to the important elements or information.

Guidelines
-No more than two fonts and make sure the two fonts compliment each other.
-Avoid all uppercase except for the heading or title.
-Choose the right font make sure that you choose the font that most resembles your topic or idea that your trying to portray
-Do not overuse fancy and complicated fonts such as decorative font

The Grid
-The grid is a way of organizing content on a page, using any combination of margins , guide lines, rows, and columns.
-Instituted by Modernism
-Can assit the audience by breaking info into manageable chunks and establishing relationships between text and images.
-A grid consists of a distinct set of alignment-based relationships that are guides for distributing elements across a format.
-Every design is different; therefore every design will require a different grid structure..one that addresses the particular elements within the design.
-A grid is used to help clarify the message being communicated and to unify the elements.

Cave Paintings | 35, 000 years ago

What are cave paintings?
-Beautiful, detailed, and colorful representations found on the inside of cave walls and ceilings.
Name several common themes found in cave paintings?
-Large animals such as bison, horses, and deers, also tracing of human hands and abstract patterns.
How were these paintings created (tools, pigments)?
-Used by mixing water with plant juice, animal blood, soil, charcoal, and hematite, and brushed were made by putting together sticks, small stones, leaves, and human hair.


What is the most famous cave painting site? When was it discovered and by whom? 
-In Lascaux, France in 1940 by four teenage boys.


Post an example of cave painting(s) from this cave.

Why did this cave have to be closed? What was done to satisfy public curiosity?-Closed in 1963 because the paintings were being damaged by carbon dioxide emitted from tourists.And they created a man made replica of the cave paintings.

Post an example of cave painting(s) from Altamira cave.

In Altamira cave, why do most of the paintings have a red hue?
-Caused by red clay in the soil.

Who discovered this site? How old are the paintings confirmed to be?
-Discovered by Marceline Sanz De Sautuola and his daughter Maria. 19,000 years old.

What is the oldest known cave painting site? When was it discovered and by whom?
-Discovered in 1994 called the Chauvet- Point Arc. Discovered by three Speleogists, Eliette Brunell Deschamps, Christian Hillaire, and Jean Marie Chauvet.


Post an example of cave painting(s) from this cave.

What was different about the painting techniques at this site?-Walls were scraped clear of debris and 3D effect was created by etching around the edges.


What is "speleology"?
-Scientific study of caves such as their features and history.

What three reasons do archeologists and historians believe prehistoric man created cave paintings?-Retell a story or recount an event that already happened, instructional visual and to help teach about human techniques, or created for magical or religious reasons that if an image of a desired event were painted it might come true.