Details— Types of Typesetting

This symposium addresses one of typography’s least examined yet most pervasive concerns: what occurs at the end of the line. While line endings shape the visual, rhythmic, and ideological character of text, approaches to alignment and experimentation within typesetting remain largely untheorised. Methods are commonly transmitted as tacit professional knowledge, passed between designers and typesetters with minimal critical articulation.

Professor Fraser Muggeridge will present his paper, Cuts and Tears as Justified and Unjustified Typesetting: From Bayer to the Kindle, drawing on his ongoing research into the historical, cultural, and technological conditions of justified and unjustified composition. The talk introduces alternative models for setting text, developed over the last century, that challenge dominant conventions.

Further presentations by AGI members will put forward ideas, theories, methodologies, and practical demonstrations of approaches to typesetting that are specific to geographical locations, cultural considerations, and visual preferences.

The symposium will conclude with a round-table discussion between the speakers audience from around the world, foregrounding contrasting positions on justification, alignment, and typographic ethics.