Type, trends and fashion: A study of the late twentieth century proliferation of typefaces

ever-increasing number of typefaces does not appear able to be sustained in the marketplace. The second conclusion is that a checklist of criteria which are likely to have an impact on the popularity of a typeface would prove invaluable to designers and distributors of typefaces in a contracting and highly competitive marketplace. The third conclusion is that the explosion of typeface designs has caused the significance of typefaces to move from being viewed as the products of a specialist area of printing craft with its own mystique and history to one of a tradable commodity of debatable value within visual culture, susceptible to piracy, and able to be considered in theoretical terms of consumption, trends analysis and fashion.