Typography: body and dress of a text - a signing mode between language and image

摘要

This study demonstrates how semiotic theories can be used to understand typography. Starting from the assumption that typography represents a mode/code in its own right, which interacts with all other its own right, which interacts with all other textual signing modes, the article outlines a typographic 'grammar' as a structured set of networked resources. The analytical toolkit is then illustrated with the help of two sample texts. Based on some general semiotic reflections about the nature and operations of the graphic sign, this article also attempts a concise account of typographic meaning making and its communicative effects.