The creation, meaning, and marketing of typefaces have its own thriving niche market with at least 400 typographic aficionados converging on Buffalo, New York in the middle of July for TypeCon 2008. For these people and thousands of designers, artists and fans of visual culture all over the world, typography is an ancient art form that reflects culture and history.

Compared to 50 years ago, the number of people who have heard of fonts and use them has multiplied a thousandfold, according to Charles Bigelow, a professor of typography at Rochester Institute of Technology and co-designer of the family of typefaces called Lucinda. To a book designer or a newspaper designer, a typeface is a very important choice in communicating an idea that they want someone else to understand. For example, there are the design choices of the 2008 presidential candidates: to represent Senator Barack Obama’s message of optimism, his campaign chose the Gotham typeface which looks refined and progressive. Senator Hillary Clinton, who lost, used the more conservative New Baskerville font based in the mid-1700s and Senator John McCain uses the popular typeface Optima.

Typefaces themselves have a history all their own. German Blackletter, for example, was a form of typeface used throughout Europe since 1100 A.D. and into the 20^th century and now has connotations with gang culture used in tattoos and on rap albums.

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