Print situates words in space more relentlessly than
writing ever did. Writing moves words from the sound
world to a world of visual space, but print locks words
into position in this space. Control of position is
everything in print. Printed texts look machine-made,
as they are. In handwriting, control of space tends to
be ornamental, ornate, as in calligraphy. Typographic
control typically impresses most by its tidiness and
invisibility: the lines perfectly regular, all justified on
the right side, everything coming out even visually,
and without the aid of guidelines or ruled borders that
often occur in manuscripts. This is an insistent world
of cold, non-human, facts.