Relying on Jürgen Habermas's premise that modernity is an "unfinished project", Robin Kinross places the beginnings of a true modern typography practice around 1700 with the publication in England of the first typography, Joseph Moxon's Mechanick exercises (1683-1684), and the creation of the King's Roman in France. Here he gives a history of modern typography viewed in a broad sense, far beyond formal modernism, focusing on approaches and practitioners who, in Europe or the United States, knew how to articulate knowledge and practice, to the like English reformers or members of the new typography. By taking into account the technical advances and the context in which the typographers operate, Robin Kinross thus emphasizes the social, political, technical and material aspects that inform their practice. The originality of this essay is on several levels: living and critical narrative of developments in typography over the centuries, it is enriched by representative examples, rarely shown before, and offers an opening for further investigations.