I believe Jan Tschichold makes a very important point about the change in Typography in Modern times. The separation in which Old Typography focuses on beauty while the New Typography focuses on “clarity” and purpose. The Typography we use now is meant to deliver a message clearly but also provide function. Though, the way he puts it, it’s as if the way the Old style Typography had no function.
Personally, I think the Old Style type was definitely meant to convey beauty. It ignores all the rules and theories we know of today but it works perfectly for the time it was made in. Most books that were printed around that time were biblical. Making the book extravagant, and nice to look at were made to convey the beauty of the deity they believed in. It wasn’t meant to communicate another human but something bigger than themselves.
In the second part of the article it says., “the typographer to express this relationship clearly and visibly through type sizes and weight, arrangement of lines, use of color, photography” All of these requirements are met in the Old Style Typography, but limited to the extent of the technology used.
