Emil Ruder (1914–1970) was a Swiss typographer, teacher and author. Having finished his apprenticeship as a typesetter in Zurich in 1933, Ruder spent a year in Paris before attending the Schule für Gestaltung Zürich where he studied type composition, letterpress printing, lettering, and book-design. He was appointed full-time teacher of typography at the Schule für Gestaltung Basel in 1942 and five years later became the school's head of the apprentices in the Applied Arts department. Ruder initiated the specialized class for letterpress printing and became a very influential and prominent educator. He was co-founder of the International Center for the Typographic Arts (ICTA) in New York in 1962, and director of the Schule für Gestaltung Basel from 1965. In 1968, Ruder initiated the international Advanced Program for Graphic Design, together with Armin Hofmann.
