Saddlebags, Paperbacks and Mobile Media

Abstract

Information is shaped by its format. The printing press with its repeatable layout laid ground for footnotes and references from other sources, and thus can be seen as the technology that initially generated the concept of hyperlinks. In the fifteenth century, printed matter quickly developed other formats like the paperback book or the flyer. These formats changed the content in almost every aspect significantly: books that fit in a saddlebag are mobile media and thus not as precious as the gigantic and prestigious folio placed on a lectern stand in a monastery. So books became a widespread, “ordinary” mobile medium and developed a multitude of purposes, aimed at different audiences, and generated a wide range of ideas for adequate content. The flyer in its limited size and public nature generated other forms of organizing and designing content: in order to fit the format and draw attention it uses a condensed form of messaging and an exaggerated typography.