Type Timeline

click here for a great timeline of typefaces (also added to typography links on the side) - click on a typeface to find out more
(thanks to ryan sacks!)

Even with a small sample of 100 typefaces, a timeline shows quite accurately the acceleration and proliferation of type design during the 20th century. Click on a typeface name to find out more.

The scale changes increment (x3) from 1900 onwards to show the number of types produced; the important manufacturing innovations that fuelled this increase are shown in red.

Although the traditional categories of type (like old style, transitional etc.) are based on historical developments, in a diagram like this all styles appear to co-exist without any clearly defined boundaries.