Where do fonts come from?

Simon Garfield writes (WSJ 3 Sep 11) that Steve Jobs introduced fonts to the contemporary world:

"Shortly after he dropped out of college, Mr. Jobs found that he had the freedom to attend classes on subjects that pleased him rather than bored him. At one of thse he discovered the joys of calligraphy and typefaces. He found the experience 'beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture,' he said.

"And so when the Mac was born a decade later, Mr. Jobs gave its users something novel, a choice of fonts -- everything from Times New Roman to the original Chicago and Venice -- a revolutionary act that loosened our dependence on the professional designer. (Whether your nice new printer could cope with them was another matter.)"