The proper use of typefaces is a concern to members of several professions. All of these will be described in short here. Some older professions, which do not exist any longer, will also be included, since they are used in older publications.

Firstly, there is the author, whose role is obvious. However, before readers can ponder the ideas of the author, the message content needs to be reproduced in print. The type designer creates an alphabet of letterforms by drawing every character, considering beauty, balance, legibility and special requirements. The typecaster, or typefounder, manufactures the typeface. The way in which this is done has evolved from casting the letters in metal to digitally producing them for design by keyboard. The typecaster sells the ready-to-use type to a printer. The typographer converts a text into a graphic design and gives it to the printer, who takes the design to press. The typesetter, who could well be the same person as the printer, translates the design into a form that the particular printing machine to be used can handle. In the early days of print, this meant setting the metal type in place on the plate. Today, it means digitally setting the parameters of the press. The compositor, as he is also called, makes his ‘translation’ according to specifications such as typeface and interline spacing, provided by the typographer. Finally, the printer rolls the press and puts the ink to paper.

Typography is a craft that concerns "the visual attributes of written language" (Waller in Britton and Glynn, 1987). It involves the selection and application of typefaces, the choice of page format, as well as the composition of letters into text with the aim of transmitting a message as clearly as possible (Zachrisson, 1965; Van Mourik and Fransen, 1993). An important aspect of this transmission is the enhancement of written language similar to the way in which spoken language is enhanced by vocal pitching, gesturing and tone. Another aspect is to stimulate readers to search for the underlying structure of the message in order to aid comprehension and deeper processing of the information. There are those who would rather call typography an art, but typography goes beyond art simply because of the functional requirements involved. It is the task of the typographer to make printing specifications in such a way that the aims of readability, attractiveness and economical reproduction are unified (Encarta, 1995). This obviously requires more than creativity alone.

The formally trained typographer has studied graphic design. However, this does not mean that all graphic designers are typographers. The term typographer is not used as commonly anymore and is often considered to apply only to those who are involved with type in book printing, whereas graphic design supposedly covers a wider area (Van Mourik and Fransen, 1993). However, both terms are sometimes used for one and the same person. Likewise, the terms typography and layout can be distinguished as separate activities. Again, definitions abound and the activities overlap to a great extent. Thus, the distinction between typography, graphic design, and layout seems rather futile when no practitioner of one area will refrain from being active in the other area. All these terms refer to the same set of materials and activities. Moreover, typeface design and typographic design are both typographic activities, but are distinctly different in nature. For practical purposes, no distinction will be made here between those who perform either activity. Therefore, the terms typography and design will be used interchangeably in this review. The term layout will be defined and discussed in chapter 3.