英語視頻暢談歐美人文風情94：西方印刷術和字體的歷史

Type is power: the power to express words and ideas visually. It's timeless but always changing. And that's what we're going to explore.

字體就是力量：在視覺上表達字句和想法的力量。它是永恒的但總是在改變。而那就是我們要去探究的東西。

Most people agree that the creator of typography was a German man named Johannes Gutenberg, and yes, he wore a hat like that. Before Gutenberg came along and revolutionized the world of communication, books needed to be scribed by hand, usually by months. It was very time-consuming and expensive. So Gutenberg created Blackletter, the first ever typeface, modeled after the writing of the scribes.

大部分的人同意印刷術的創(chuàng)造者是一位叫做古騰堡的德國人，還有是的，他戴像那樣的一頂帽子。在古騰堡出現(xiàn)并徹底改革了通訊的世界之前，書籍必須以手繕寫，通常要花上數(shù)個月。它非常耗時且昂貴。所以古騰堡創(chuàng)造出“黑體字”， 至今第一種字體，模仿抄寫員的筆跡。

Blackletter has thick vertical lines and thin horizontal connecters, which made it great for scribing, but they look very dense and squished together when printed. Something needed to change.

“黑體字”有粗的垂直線以及細瘦的水平連結，那讓它很好刻出來，但它們印出來的時候看起來非常濃密還壓扁在一起。某些東西需要改變。

Enter Roman Type.

進入“羅馬字體”。

This particular typeface is Cambria, which you're probably used to seeing on your word processor. But the first ever Roman typeface was created in the fifteenth century by the Frenchman Nicolas Jenson. This is his typeface right here.

這特別的字體是“Cambria”，這你大概在你的文字處理器上很習慣看到。但有史以來第一個“羅馬字體”是由法國人Nicolas Jenson在十五世紀時所創(chuàng)造。這里就是他的字體。

Jenson worked mainly in Venice, Italy and was inspired by the lettering found on ancient Roman buildings. His letterforms were based on straight lines and regular curves. This made them very clear legible compared to the dense darkness of Blackletter. This legible new typeface was an instant success and quickly spread across Europe, riding on the coattails of the Renaissance.

Jenson主要在意大利威尼斯工作，他是受到古羅馬建筑物上所發(fā)現(xiàn)的刻文所啟發(fā)。他的字體是基于直線和標準的弧形。這使得它們和“黑體字”的濃密黑色相比非常地清晰易讀。這清楚易讀的新字體是個瞬間的成功，搭上文藝復興的便車，迅速地散布在歐洲。

The next major innovation in typography after Roman letters was Italics, which are like slanted and stylized versions of Roman Type. They were created in the late fifteenth century by all these Venetians from Italy as a way of fitting more letters onto the page and saving money. Now we use Italics interspersed in Roman Type for emphasis. All these Venetians also created the modern comma and semicolon, but that's another story.

“羅馬字體”之后，在印刷術上的下一個主要創(chuàng)新是“斜體字”，它像是“羅馬字體”傾斜的、格式化的版本。它們在十五世紀晚期被所有這些從意大利來的威尼斯人給創(chuàng)造出來，作為一個在頁面上裝進更多字并省錢的方法。現(xiàn)在我們用散布在羅馬字體中的斜體字以示強調(diào)。所有這些威尼斯人也創(chuàng)造出了現(xiàn)代的逗號和分號，但那是另一個故事了。

Type development stayed fairly stagnant until the eighteenth century in England when William Caslon created the typeface that set a new standard for legibility. Well, it wasn't anything radical. It was just what the world was looking for. The style of Caslon's typeface is now referred to as Old Style.

字體發(fā)展保持頗為停滯不前，直至十八世紀在英國，當William Caslon創(chuàng)造出為易讀性定下了新標準的字體。這個嘛，它不是什么極端的東西。它只是世界那時正在尋找的東西。Caslon字體的風格現(xiàn)在被稱為“舊風格體”。

A few decades later, another brick named John Baskerville created a new variety of typeface, which we called Transitional. Later still, a Frenchman named Didot and an Italian named Bodoni created typefaces that we've classified as Modern. Most serif typefaces fit into one of these three categories, but what does each category mean?

數(shù)十年后，另一位叫做John Baskerville的好人創(chuàng)造了一個新種的字體，我們稱之為“過渡時期體”。之后還有，一位叫Didot的法國人和一位叫Bodoni的意大利人創(chuàng)造了我們分類為“現(xiàn)代體”的字體。大多數(shù)的襯線字體符合這三個類別之一，但每個類別的意義何在?

An Old Style typeface has letters that have fixed serifs and low contrast between thick and thin strokes. A Transitional typeface has letters with thinner serifs and a higher contrast between thick and thin strokes. And a Modern typeface has letters with very thin serifs and extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes.

一個“舊風格體”字體有著擁有固定襯線的字母以及粗細筆畫間的低對比。一個“過渡時期體”字體有著擁有較細的襯線的字母以及粗細筆畫間較高的對比。而一個“現(xiàn)代體”字體有著擁有非常細的襯線的字母以及粗細筆畫間極端的對比。

Next, William Caslon's great grandson, named William Caslon IV, got sick of all these serifs, so he dicided to remove them entirely and made a new kind of typeface, called the Sans Serif. It didn't catch on immediately but would eventually get really big.

接著，William Caslon的曾孫，叫做William Caslon四世，厭倦了所有這些襯線，于是他決定了完全拿掉它們并做了個新種的字體，叫做“無襯線體”。它并沒有立刻流行起來但最終會變得非常大受歡迎。

During the Second Industrial Revolution, advertising created the need for new typefaces. Letter were made taller and wider, mainly used in large sizes on posters and billboards. Things got pretty weird, but one happy result of all of this experimentation is Egyptian or Slab Serif. It has really thick serifs, and it's usually used for titles.

在第二次工業(yè)革命期間，廣告創(chuàng)造出對新字體的需求。文字被做得更高而且更寬了，主要以大型字體被用在海報以及告示牌上。事情變得很奇怪，但所有這些實驗的一個快樂結局是“埃及體”或是“Slab Serif體”。它有非常粗的襯線，而且通常是被用在標題上。

As a backlash to the complexity found in typefaces of the nineteenth century, the early twentieth century brought something simple.

作為對于在十九世紀字體中所發(fā)現(xiàn)的復雜性的強烈反對，二十世紀初產(chǎn)生了某種簡單的東西。

Paul Renner from Germany created a typeface called Futura, and it was based on simple geometric shapes. This is called the Geometric Sans. Around the same time, a British man Eric Gill, created the typeface called Gill Sans that was similar to the Geometric Sans but with gentler and more natural curves, and this is called the Humanist Sans.

德國的Paul Renner創(chuàng)造出了一個叫做“Futura體”的字體，它是根基于簡單的幾何形狀。這叫做“幾何無襯線體”。約莫在同一個時間，一位英國人Eric Gill創(chuàng)造出了叫做“Gill Sans體”的字體，它類似“幾何無襯線體”但有著較和緩且更天然的弧線，這個叫做“Humanist Sans體”。

The next major step in the world of Sans Serif happened in Switzerland in 1957 with the introduction of Helvetica. It has simple curves and is available in many different widths. And someone called it the world's favorite typeface.

“無襯線體”世界中接下來主要的一步，隨著“Helvetica”字體的采用，于1957年發(fā)生在瑞士。它擁有簡單的弧線，適用于許多不同的寬度。而有人稱之為世人最喜歡的字體。

The world of typography changed forever with the introduction of the computer. There were a few difficult years of crude Pixel Type due to the primitive screen technology. But then technology evolved, and computers began to allow for the creation of thousands of beautiful typefaces, and the other...done.

印刷術的世界因電腦的使用而永遠地改變了。因為早期的熒幕技術，曾有一小段屬于粗糙“像素體”的艱困時代。但接著科技進步，電腦開始允許數(shù)以千計美麗字體的創(chuàng)作，還有其他的...結束。

But now anyone has the freedom to create their own unique typeface. And that is the history of typography.

但現(xiàn)在任何人都有創(chuàng)造他們自己獨特字體的自由。那是印刷術的歷史。