The first time ATypI came to Copenhagen was in 1973, when typography writer Nicolete Gray gave a talk that still feels highly relevant. She described a kind of reading she called involuntary public reading. She pointed to the words we encounter without choosing to: street lettering, advertisements, shop signs, and book jackets and record sleeves displayed in shops. The typefaces, she noted, came in all shapes, sizes, and materials, plastic, metal, fibreglass, paper, and were often lit up, moving, colourful.
But what’s fascinating is that many of those physical forms of public reading that Gray described are no longer with us. We rarely browse record sleeves or book covers in shops. Many stores in city centres stand empty. The materials have changed. Our reading today is largely digital, screen-based, and increasingly generated or curated by artificial intelligence.
With this shift, we must ask new questions. What does it mean that reading has become so thoroughly digital? How does it shape our habits, our attention, and our experience of type? What happens to public and private reading in a world of algorithmically filtered content?
This year, ATypI returns to Copenhagen for the third time, under the theme AI and Parametric Design in Typography. As type design enters a new phase — driven by machine learning, generative tools, and responsive systems — we invite you to join us in exploring how these technologies are not only changing the way we design type, but also the way we read.
We look forward to a week of inspiring talks, thoughtful conversations, and shared reflections on the past, present, and future of typography.
Welcome to Copenhagen. Welcome to ATypI 2025.
Sofie Beier
Local Chair, Royal Danish Academy