| How does a gardener's son from the backwaters of Canton Berne, a typographer by trade and poet by inclination, light upon Japan and the Japanese short poem? |
| At first a mason, then a typographer, he invented an early composing machine which he called the pianotype. |
| This detail settled, the typographer is now instructed to proceed with the composition and to send proofs to the author. |
| He actually trained as a typographer before going to NewYork as a freelance designer in the 1960s, where he encountered the vibrant American pop culture that became a major inspiration. |
| But the semicolon was a Latin delicacy which the obtuse English typographer resisted. |
| The typographer worked all day on hinting her new font so it would look good on computer screens. |
