Born in Scotland, in 1872, Edward Johnston abandoned his early studies in medicine at Edinburgh University in order to pursue an interest in calligraphy. He was appointed by W. R. Lethaby to teach Lettering and Illumination at the newly formed Central School of Arts and Crafts in London in 1898. Around this time he began his research into letter forms in early manuscripts in the British Museum. He published his Writing & Illuminating, & Lettering in 1906, a legendary manual that has not been out of print since. He almost single-handedly revived the use of the broad-edged pen and both inspired and taught most of the early twentieth-century calligraphers and letter designers at his classes at the Central School and later at the Royal College of Art in London. He designed the famous sans serif alphabet used on the London Underground system. He was awarded the CBE in 1939, and died in 1944.

Johnston's essay "Formal Penmanship Defined by the Thing" is included in Every Man An Artist .