Books

The earliest form of books were scrolls which were continuous sheets of paper or cloth that were rolled up for storage. The early Christians began using what were called codex, which were pieces of paper folded into quarters to form pages and bound along a spine. Wood Block printing originated in the early 15th century and is a process of creating wood cut blocks for each page so that they could be printed several times over. The blocks had to be carved backwards and reverse printed.

A section of folio 27v from the Book of Kells, an early Christian codex, shows the symbols of Matthew and Mark.

Just as wth many art forms, the wood cut process was thoroughly developed during the Renaissance period. The development culminated in the creation of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, which was printed by Aldus Manutius who was considered by many to be the finest printer of the period. The illustrations are works of art themselves and the attention to detail in the typography is impressive.

The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (The Strife of Love in a Dream) is perhaps the finest work of illustration craftsmanship from the Rennaissance.

The book was further developed in the 20th Century by Jan Tschischold who detailed two approaches to book design. The first was an asymmetrical style of design that was infused with "liveliness and order" and is outlined in his first book Die Neue Typographie or The New Typography. After many years he returned to a neoclassical approach that favored symmetrical design and balanced typography. He elaborated his theories in his book The Form of the Book.

The Van der Graaf canon is used to divide a page into pleasing proportions and was popularized by Jan Tschichold in his book The Form of the Book.