There aren’t only the functional aspects to consider when choosing a typeface: the cultural and formal aspects are also pertinent for the (hopefully erudite and

There aren’t only the functional aspects to consider when choosing a typeface: the cultural and formal aspects are also pertinent for the (hopefully erudite and passionate) designer. Does the font originate from the beginning of the previous century? Is it an Italian or an American design? Is it a new edition or a redesign of a classic version? Is the historical context of the font relevant to the meaning of the text? Sometimes it may be just a formal choice: a particular glyph has an interesting, funny or pointy shape and this could help setting the mood of the text. The questions is: what characteristics can be expressed with the choice of a particular typeface? Of course for the reader the contents of the text can be accessed without knowing any of these details, but there are more layers of information (and beauty) available. I’m absolutely no expert in font matters but for me the interest started by reading the history of design and its actors: the Trajan's Column, Gutenberg, Bodoni, the industrial revolution, mechanical typesetting, OCR, PostScript, etc. History is also marked by how text is represented and reproduced.