Typography in Media Historical Perspective. An Introduction

At first glance, a special issue on the subject of typography might seem an unusual choice for an academic journal dedicated to media history. After all, wouldn’t the study of typography be better suited to a publication on the history of art and graphic design, or perhaps the study of books? A quick glance through previous general issues of the Journal for Media History (Tijdschrift voor Mediageschiedenis, or TMG) reveals that the majority of the articles deal with traditional media such as film, television, photography and print media. But TMG also publishes special issues on a wide variety of topics, ranging from the monarchy to scandals to representations of nature. These special issues challenge the journal to explore its boundaries, both in terms of research and scope. It will be interesting to see just which boundaries this special issue on typography will be crossed.