Michael Twyman (born 1934) is a Professor Emeritus of the Department of

Typography Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), ...

Graphic Communication Graphic communication as the name suggests is communication using graphic elements. These elements include symbols such as glyphs and icons, images such as drawings and photographs, and can include the passive contributions of substrate, colour ...

at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

. He joined the university staff in 1959. He established a BA (Hons) course in Typography & Graphic Communication which eventually grew into its own department in 1974. Both the programme and the department are widely acknowledged to be the first of their kind in the world. He retired from full-time teaching in 1998 but still teaches postgraduate students and is also the Director of the Centre for Ephemera Studies. He has been a visiting teacher at Rare Book Schools in Virginia, Lyons, Wellington and Melbourne. For many years he has served as Vice-President of the

Printing Historical Society The Printing Historical Society or 'PHS' is a learned society devoted to the study of the history of printing, in all its forms. History The Society was founded in London in 1964 by a group of teachers, scholars, students of design and bibliography ...

and in 2016 he succeeded Asa Briggs as President of the Ephemera Society. Twyman is often cited for his works on the history of printing and ephemera, especially lithography. In addition, he is well known for his writings on the theory of graphic language. He also completed and edited Maurice Rickards' book ''Encyclopedia of Ephemera'' (London: British Library, 2000). He was an early member of the

and has edited and contributed to issues of its ''Journal''. In 1983 he was awarded the Samuel Pepys Medal for his Outstanding Contribution to Ephemera Studies, and in 2014 the Sir Misha Black award and was added to the College of Medallists. In 2021 he received the Gold Medal of the

Bibliographical Society of London Founded in 1892, The Bibliographical Society is the senior learned society dealing with the study of the book and its history in the United Kingdom. Largely owing to the efforts of Walter Arthur Copinger, who was supported by Richard Copley ...

for distinguished services to bibliography. Twyman is not to be confused with lawyer and conservative thinker Michael Tweyman of Toronto, Ontario.

Selected works

*(1966) "John Soulby, Printer, Ulverston: A Study of the Work Printed by John Soulby, Father and Son, Between 1796 and 1827". *(1967) ''The lithographic hand press 1796–1850.'' Journal of the Printing Historical Society, no. 3 *(1970) ''Printing 1770–1970: an illustrated history of its development and uses in England.'' Eyre & Spottiswoode, London *(1970) ''Lithography 1800-1850.'' OUP, London *(1973) ''Lithographic stone and the printing trade in the nineteenth-century.'' Journal of the Printing Historical Society, no. 8 *(1979) ''A Schema for the Study of Graphic Language.'' In ''The Processing of Visible Language'', (Eds, Kolers, P.A., Wrolstad, M.E. & Bouma, H.) Plenum, New York *(1982) ''The Graphic Presentation of Language'', Information Design Journal 3(1) *(1985) ''Using Pictorial Language: A Discussion of the Dimensions of the Problem.'' In ''Designing Usable Texts'', (Eds, Thomas Duffy & Robert Waller), Academic Press, Orlando. *(1988) ''Charles Joseph Hullmandel: lithographic printer extraordinary'' in Gilmour, P. (ed), ''Lasting impressions'', Canberra, Australian National Gallery *(1990) ''Early Lithographed Books : a study of the design and production of improper books in the age of the hand press.'' Farrand, London. *(1993) ''The bold idea: the use of bold-looking types in the nineteenth century.'' Journal of the Printing Historical Society, no. 22. *(1996) ''Early Lithographed Music : a study based on the H. Baron collection.'' Farrand, London. *(1998) ''The British Library Guide to Printing: history and techniques.'' British Library, London. *(2000) ''Breaking the Mould : the first hundred years of lithography.'' British Library, London. *(2007) ''Images en couleur. Godefroy Engelmann, Charles Hullmandel et les débuts de la chromolithographie.'' Musée de l'imprimerie, Lyon *(2008) ''The long-term significance of printed ephemera.'' RBM: A journal of rare books, manuscripts, and cultural heritage, vol. 9, no. 1, Spring *(2013) ''A history of chromolithography: printed colour for all.'' British Library and Printing Historical Society, London.

References

Sources

Staff pages of the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication
Accessed April 13, 2007.

Accessed April 13, 2007. * *"Michael Twyman: a checklist of the published writings", Bulletin 45, Summer 1998, Printing Historical Society, pp 7–9. *"Supplement to the checklist of Michael Twyman's published writings, 1996–1998", Journal of the Printing Historical Society, new series number 17, 2011, pp 49–51. {{DEFAULTSORT:Twyman, Michael 1934 births Living people British historians Academics of the University of Reading