At the beginning of the XVIII century, in 1708, by decree of Peter I, the mandatory use of the new Russian font was introduced in Russia. This font for civilian use consisted of mixing traditional forms of Russian and Latin fonts of those times.
From Peter's times until the revolution, fonts were perfected, altered, and reconstructed. Information transmitted through the press, is demanded by the person daily. Therefore, the issue of the quality of the used headsets is so important, both in book publishing and in periodicals.
Pre-revolutionary eighteenth-century font
The main advantage of any font is the clarity and simplicity of the form of letters, ease of reading.
Well-designed font contributed to the spread of literacy in Russia. Indeed, even the first book published in the complex of using civilian fonts for educational books was Geometry. It was released in 1708 by the Printing House of Moscow.
Throughout the eighteenth century, the font of pre-revolutionary Russia is being improved, becoming more concise and readable. Unnecessary decorative elements in the spelling of letters are removed, bulky lines are shortened or completely removed.
The desire for unity and rigor in the pattern of letters is becoming the main principle for improving the quality of fonts. The civilian font of Peter's times did not change until the middle of the 18th century.
New style and artistic value
The history of the creation of Russian fonts could not but be influenced by the artistic values of the century and new styles. So, the Art Nouveau style that arose at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries influenced the creation of interesting patterns of typefaces used in book publishing.
Of particular interest are the Elizabethan, academic and Latin headsets. These fonts were more compact than Petrovsky, and depicted with contrasting strokes.
The influence on graphics and the pre-revolutionary typeface in these years was exerted by French workshops casting signs and letters (letters) into words and whole phrases. These workshops were located in St. Petersburg and belonged to Plyushar and Ravillon.
In the photo: pre-revolutionary typeface, samples and spellings in various headsets.
Missing letters
Such letters of the Russian alphabet as "yat", "izhitsa", "fita" have disappeared from the modern font forever. The letters "i", "u" were not related to the Latin alphabet.
Everything happened due to the fact that the grammar and spelling rules were improved, those signs and letters that were considered superfluous and only cluttering up the spelling, either altered, or completely abolished.
Of course, the process of forming the pre-revolutionary typeface went gradually, under the influence of fashion and workshops, which belonged mainly to foreign companies.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Alexander pre-revolutionary fonts with "yat" arose.
From the middle to the end of the 19th century, the role of trendsetters in the field of casting letters and signs was played by German printing houses in St. Petersburg, Riga, Tiflis, Moscow, such as the branches of Bertold, Krebs, Lehman. These printing houses possessed the skill not only of casting Russian fonts, but also could cast engravings and drawings by Russian artists.
Printing Skills Development
Russian masters, engravers and artists took an active part in the development of the pre-revolutionary typeface. So, in the first half of the nineteenth century, an interesting spelling of letters like "antiqua" was suggested by the font master Peter Volkov. Texts for the New Russian Alphabet of the 1819 edition were cast according to the sketches of the engraver.
Before the revolution, Russian printing houses were dominated by European fonts: various types of "antiqua", Egyptian, "grotesque", to which the missing letters of the Russian alphabet were added.
At the end of the nineteenth century, the Academy of Sciences printing house entered the competitive market of German printing houses. The imperial printing workshop managed to develop fonts that are used with small innovations, modernization, and today, various publishers.
The currently used academic version of the font was first cast in 1910.
Pre-revolutionary font and modernity
Interest in the development of typographic art has not waned in our time. The font qualities such as beauty, grace, readability, and the possibility of multiple reproduction are still relevant.
All Russian pre-revolutionary fonts at the dawn of the development of typographic art were typed manually. This required large raw materials and labor costs.
In the first half of the 20th century, line casting machines began to be used. Of course, the unification of printing also required simplification of fonts. In the first two months after the revolution, such "useless" signs and letters as i, b ("yat") and Q ("fita") were removed from the alphabet in the opinion of the young authorities.
In addition, it was necessary to unify the alphabet for the education of those annexed peoples as a result of political transformations for which there was no modern writing at all.
The requirements of the time left its imprint and will on pre-revolutionary fonts, influenced the graphics of letters, when the main emphasis was on the simplicity of typographic writing.