Johannes Gutenberg - The Father of Modern Typography

Scratch board portrait by
Michael Halbert

Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg– simply known as Johannes Gutenberg – was born cira 1400 to Freile Gensfleisch and his wife Else Wyrich in Mainz, Germany; being one of the patrician families of the town. The last name of Gutenberg is taken from the patriarchal family estates.

Little to nothing is known of Johannes' early life, except that he migrated to Strasburg in March of 1434; supposedly for political reasons- an uprising against the patricians had taken hold in 1411. There he would join the higher ranks of the patricians, as well as become a gold smith; also teaching gem polishing, production of looking glass, and, eventually, printing.

Legend has it that the idea of the press and movable type came to Johannes “like a beam of light”. Others have speculated that he had gleamed the entire process from knowledge of other techniques already in use. Whatever the case may be, his combination of pressing techniques, unveiled in 1440, led to the European inception of the printing press, and, most notably, modern typography. It was his use of lead based alloys to create cheap, easy to manufacture letter punches that could be made quickly, affordably, and with relative uniformity – much more durable then wooden block letters – that lead to the rise of modern typography and the printing revolution.

Page of Gutenberg's 42 line Bible
with illumination. Such decoration depended
on how much the buyer spent.

Though his first projects were Latin and German readers of the time, he's best known for the undertaking of, what would later come to be known as, The Gutenberg Bible; partially funded by Johann Fust and his son in law Peter Schoffer.

Many trials and adjustments would come to pass in the creation of his Bible. Most notable were his abandoned first attempts at multicolored two pass printing - later replaced with single pass and hand illumination, and the ability to increase print lines from an initial 36 lines to, eventually, 42 per page. (In some cases, Gutenberg's Bible is referred to as the “42 line Bible”.) His Bible was completed in 1452.

Johannes created a font type later to be known as Textualis (Textura), or also Schawbacher; characterized by straight, vertical strokes, horizontal lines, and varied line weights, to create a woven like structure throughout the text. To make the justification of the type stronger to the eye, he would vary font sizes, line spacing, and utilized “hanging punctuation”; allowing punctuation to pass beyond the justification lines of the paragraph borders.

Study of Textualis; spaces would be left for
hand illumination of lettering during the
printing process.

Though a skilled craftsman, Johannes was a poor business man. In 1456 legal issues and money disputes between Johannes, Fust, and Schoffer would see Johannes bankrupt, losing his Bible making business; though, later, he would, again, set up another print press, and continue his work. In 1459 a Bible was printed in the city of Bamburg with Johannes supplying the type; though no official credit is given to him.

In 1465, after sacking Johannes' home town of Mainz, archbishop Adolf von Nassau, in recognition of Johannes' work, bestowed on him the title of “Hofmann”; gentleman of the court. He is believed to have lived there, under the stipend of his title, until his death in 1468; his accomplishments relatively unknown to the general public. His grave, in the Franciscan church of Mainz, was lost when the church and cemetery were destroyed in 1742.

Portrait of Johannes Gutenberg;
believed a reconstruction as no
known portrait exists in antiquity.

It wasn't until 1504 that Johannes is publicly recognized as the inventor of typography in a publication by chancellor Ivo Wittig of the University of Mainz, declaring; “who, first of all, invented printing letters... by which art he has deserved honor by the whole world.” In 1567 Johannes' portrait was added to Heinrich Pantaleon's biography of famous Germans.