History of Visual Communications

1. Caxton produced the first book in English.

1.1. First newsletter was Boston Newsletter published by John Campbell

2. The Book

2.1. Started with writing on scrolls which allowed for sequential access

2.2. Later came the codex, which was even used for the bible

2.3. Paper began to replace papryus

2.4. Illuminated manuscripts were adding decorations and ornamentations in addition to the writing on the page

2.4.1. Exclusive for religious texts, because making an illuminated text was very laborious.

3. Gutenberg Press (1450's)

3.1. Invented by Johannes Gutenberg

3.1.1. Created it to provide a better way to make books and because of his love of reading

3.1.2. Also created an oil-based ink

3.1.3. Had John Fust invest in the press, if he did not pay him back with interest in 5 years, Fust would get the materials, tools and the press.

3.1.4. Printed the first bible, which he later got credit after his former partner Schoeffer told the truth that Fust and he did not come up with the idea.

3.2. A printing press used a hand press in which ink was rolled over the raised surface of movable hand- set letters held within a wooden frame.

3.2.1. Developed from olive and grape pressing types

3.3. First movable type was wooden and developed in China

3.3.1. However, Gutenberg, who had been experimenting with metal typography, decided to create a metal type to replace the wooden type.

3.4. 4 types of printing

3.4.1. Relief Printing (oldest way of printing)-movable type is place into the press, ink is spread onto the type---oldest type of press

3.4.2. Intaglio-image area is etched into the plate surface to hold the ink

3.4.3. Porous-basic stencil process

3.4.4. Lithography-printing from a flat surface

4. Linotype Machine

4.1. Christopher Sholes created 1st commercially successfully typewriter.

4.1.1. Sent many prototypes to Clephane, who earlier was looking to make writing notes easier

4.2. Clephane seeked help from Ottmar Mergenthaler for his typesetting machine

4.2.1. He suggested that the casting type be from a metal matrix versus papier-mache

4.3. Linotype Machine allowed type to be set mechanically rather than by hand

4.4. Linotype= produces an entire line of metal type at once

4.5. Linotype was first installed at the New York Tribune

4.6. Linotype keyboard consisted of 90 characters

4.6.1. Black keys= lowercase letters

4.6.2. White keys= uppercase letters

4.6.3. Blue keys= punctuation, digits, small capital letters, and fixed width spaces

5. Computers

5.1. 1st programmable computer invented by Konrad Zuse

5.2. Mark Computers were invented by Howard Aiken and Grace Cooper

5.2.1. Used for gunnery and ballistic calculations by US Navy

5.3. 1st commercial computer--->Univac (universal automatic computer)

5.3.1. Designed by John Preseper Eckert & John Mauchly

5.4. IBM= International Business Machdines---> IBM701 EDPM Computer

5.5. 1st high level programming language was Fortran ( IBM Mathematical Formula Translating System)

5.6. First computer games was Spacewar

5.7. First computer mouse, which made the computer more user friendly and allowed navigation, was invented by Douglas Engelbert.

5.8. 1st internet was ARPANET--used to protect flow of information between military installations by creating a network of geographically separated computers.

5.9. Intel 4004 was the 1st single chip microprocessor. It was made by Intel.

5.10. 1st memory disk was a Floppy Disk by IBM

5.11. First ethernet was developed by Robert Metcalfe and Xerox.

5.12. Apple & Microsoft

5.12.1. Apple created Apple Lisa in 1983. 1st computer of Apple with graphical user interface. (GUI was created by Xerox)

5.12.1.1. 1984 introduced Macintosh

5.12.2. Bill Gates and his company introduced MS-DOS ( an operating system)

5.12.2.1. PC= Personal Computer

5.12.2.1.1. Microsoft introduced the Windows Operating System in response to Apple's operating system.

6. Photography

6.1. 4th century= camera obscura--- dark chamber; optical device that projects an image of its surroundings onto a screen.

6.1.1. 1500's was a darkened room with a convex lens inserted into a wall---outside scene passed through the lens and was projected onto the opposite wall.

6.1.1.1. 17th and 18th centuries shrunk to size of a portable box.

6.2. Greek words for "light" and "writing"

6.3. 1st successful photograph by Joseph Niepce in 1827

6.4. 1st practical photographic process by Louis Daguerre.

6.4.1. Daguerreotype- image is exposed to light-sensitive metal sheet, which creates a direct positive image--immersed in salt for a more permanent image--copies cannot be made

6.5. William Fox Talbot created the Calotype process

6.5.1. Calotype- image is exposed to light sensitive paper producing a paper negative- better quality; duplicates can be made

6.5.1.1. Basis of modern photographic process because it could create an unlimited amount of duplicates.

6.6. Wet Collodion Process/ Wet Plate Process

6.6.1. wet glass plates used as negative to catch image when exposed to light

6.7. Dry Process created by Richard Maddox

6.7.1. Dry Plate Process- glass plates are coated with gelatin, uses gelatin instead for the photographic plate

6.8. Eastman patented a film that used gelatin as a base, had a very thin celluloid back, and coated it with emulsion.

6.8.1. Established the company Eastman Kodak

6.8.1.1. In 1990 market Brownie--a camera for the masses

6.9. 1st color photograph taken by James Clerk Maxwell

6.10. Edwin Land patented invention of instant photography

6.10.1. Instant photography- a one-step process for developing and printing photographs

6.11. Muybridge paved way for motion picture photography and developed zoopraxiscope

6.11.1. Zoopraxiscope= device used to project a series of images in successive phases of motion

7. (30,000 yrs. ago) Cave Paintings

7.1. Man’s first attempts to communicate with images and symbols. First form of graphic communications.

7.2. beautiful, detailed and colorful representations found on the inside of cave walls and ceilings

7.3. Famous Caves

7.3.1. Lascaux Cave

7.3.2. Altamira Cave

7.3.3. Chauvet Pont d’Arc

7.4. Why were they created?

7.4.1. 1. For storytelling

7.4.2. 2. To teach things such as hunting techniques

7.4.3. 3. For magical/religious reasons

7.5. Topics of cave paintings were of large animals (bison, horses, deer) tracings of human hands, abstract patterns

7.5.1. Images were created using paint ( made of water, plant juice,animal blood, soil, charcoal and hematite--a form of iron oxide), and brushes (made of sticks, small stones, leaves, and animal hair).

8. Cuneiform (3300 BCE to 100 CE)

8.1. Wrote on clay tablets using wedged-shaped stylus

8.2. Began as pictograms, but evolved and became more abstract, more characters.

8.3. Who were the Sumerians?

8.3.1. Created Cuneiform to keep track of business transactions.

8.3.2. Lived in a theocratic culture ruled by a priest king

8.3.3. Were skilled artisans who created vases, bowls and other types of pottery

8.3.4. Music was an important part of their lives, or as it seems

9. Hieroglyphics (3100 BCE to 400 CE)

9.1. Influenced by wanting to express words into writing

9.2. Formal Writing System that was a combination of logographic and alphabetic elements

9.2.1. Logogram-visual symbols representing ideas or objects

9.2.2. Used to communicate information about religion and government, which was considered important

9.2.2.1. Students and priests were scribes

9.2.3. Written on papyrus

9.3. Hieroglyphic- Greek words of Hiero (sacred) and Glyphic ( engraving or writing)

9.4. Can be deciphered by Rosetta Stone

9.4.1. Contains the writings of Ancient Greek, Demotic and Hieroglyphics.

9.4.2. Deciphered by Jean Francois Champollion

9.4.3. Found by the French in Rosetta, hence the "Rosetta Stone"

9.4.4. Can be found currently in the British Museum, however, Egypt has a replica made by the British Museum

10. Phonetic Alphabet

10.1. First created by Phoenicians in 15th Century BC (Phoenician Alphabet)

10.1.1. Signs represent words

10.1.1.1. Only had consonants

10.1.1.1.1. Successful because it was an easy script to learn, and because of the trade culture of the Phoenician merchants

10.2. The Greek and Roman are other phonetic alphabets.

10.2.1. Greek is considered first "true" alphabet

10.2.1.1. Has vowels and other letters in addition to the consonants.

10.2.2. Roman alphabet is also known as the Latin alphabet.

10.2.2.1. Two styles of scripts

10.2.2.1.1. A rigid, formal script

10.2.2.1.2. Quicker, informal text

10.3. Theories of Origin

10.3.1. Direct variation of hieroglyphics,

10.3.2. Tied with Cuneiform or an independent creation.

10.4. Effects of the alphabet

10.4.1. Common people were able to write also. Disintegrated class divisions between royalty and the common man.

10.5. Components of writing

10.5.1. Serifs

10.5.2. Baseline

10.5.3. Descender