Type 3: Stephen Fry and the Gutenberg Press

The first and for most thing i got from watching this video was a strong sense of appreciation for Gutenberg. He was a hand in such a large part of our everyday lifes...everything i own has print on it in one way or another. I also respect this man for the fact that us as society have ample resources and tools needed for success in our given fields. We have it so easy. He had to work SOOO hard to accomplish his dream. He was so driven and had to want to produce that bible so much that it was his lifes work. You just rarely find that kind of work ethic present anymore. I also am very grateful for Gutenberg press because now i can spend the majority of my time designing the text instead of worrying about just setting it period. 

One thing i wonder is how different things like the bible would be today if we didnt get a set copy that could be reproduced the same every time, opposed to the scribes hand writing each one individually and changing/ improvising at will. Would it be like a game of telephone where the bible would be a completely different book? So the invention of his press also helped to preserve the legality of the stories and beliefs at that time as they were. This helps keep order to stories and keep things straight over time and places....thank god for being able to send the same printed invitation to 500 people so they all get the EXACT some information. 

I also found it extraordinary that Gutenberg required so many characters, 270 to be exact, Due to the fact that he wanted to be visually spaced and balance and alined. So even back then he was aware of manually kerning text to be visually pleasing, and just cause things are technically the same they dont always look the same. Even with the invention of the computer and all of our revolutionary programs this rule is still in play for proper alining and spacing in type.