Typesetting is the process of presenting textual or graphic material on paper or some other medium. From metallic characters to keystrokes, the typesetter's remit has always been helping the reader assimilating the information in an easy and pleasant manner.

Complex enough when performed in a single language, the 21st century challenge for multilingual typesetting remains a tough one. Typesetters have to accommodate an amount of translated text which typically takes up more space than the source text, while maintaining the same layout as originally intended. With 'internationalised' designs rarely being an option these days, it's left to culturally-aware, technically-gifted professionals the draconian task to achieve the best of both worlds.

Evolution of Typesetting

Under traditional methods, the author would provide a typed manuscript to the publisher and this would be marked up extensively by the desk editor and sent to the typesetters. There the entire manuscript would be retyped. Proofs would then be returned to the author, editor, and the desk editor. Each would mark corrections to the proof and return them to the publisher who would then return them to the typesetter for corrections. The costs of producing a traditional typeset brochure were quite high, as it had to be handled several times by several persons.

Today, Desktop Publishing (DTP) eliminates several of the above-mentioned steps. Typesetting providers receive a finished version of the document from their clients along with an electronic copy. The typesetters then review the document for style and proper formatting and then alter the electronic version using a DTP software programme.

But despite the technological changes of the past few decades, some of the basic principles of typography have changed little since Gutenberg invented the first metallic characters. Now as then, the main purpose of typesetting is to produce easy reading and aesthetically pleasing type. Anything that falls short of this goal is poor typography.