Walter Porstmann

A German engineer and mathematician, the creator of format A4.

In his 1920 book Sprache und Schrift he advocated, for purely economic reasons, a "single alphabet" (all lower case) and envisioned the development of a universal typeface with which eventually all languages of the world could be written. [1] The idea of unicase typography was adopted by Bauhaus and proponents of the New Typography. Laszlo Moholy-Nagy read the book; Herbert Bayer designed a unicase font called Universal; Jan Tschichold made another. [2] [3] [4] [5]

Works

• Sprache und Schrift [Languages and Writing], 1920. (German)

Literature

• Markus Krajewski, Restlosigkeit. Weltprojekte um 1900, Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 2006, pp 64-140. (German)

Links

• http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Porstmann
• http://www.goethe.de/ins/se/prj/afo/fac/su4/enindex.htm