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Home , Baskerville, Bell (typeface), Fat face, Gotham (typeface), Movable type, Mrs Eaves

characteristics 1450

t e r m i n a l s ends of strokes are often sharp; can include flourishes

ors e r i f s may or may not be present

s t r e s s oblique (aiming strongly toward left)

c o n t r a s t high contrast between thick and thin strokes

x - h e i g h t tall in relation to cap

s e t w i d t h gothic is narrow, celtic is wide

Blackletter is based on handwriting styles of Gothic (German) and Celtic (Irish) medieval scribes. Often this style is highly decorative and often referred to as textura for its woven quality. Movable was invented by in fifteenth- century Germany. His took cues from the dark, dense handwriting of the period, called “blackletter.”

The first type sorts cast in — that were, in all likelihood, cast in — were blackletter designs. Blackletter remained im- mensely popular in Germany through the 20th century; even as late as 1900, perhaps half of all printed items there were still set in it. Only since the beginning of the post-war era has blackletter disappeared from the German mainstream media environment. from: Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton and The Library of the Gutenberg Museum, Dan Reynolds

examples of blackletter: Old english Cloister black Goudy text old style characteristics 1475

t e r m i n a l s ends may be pointed, rounded, angled, ball or teardrop shape; can tend to be irregular in appearance

s e r i f s orlightly bracketed, but heavier than transitional, unrefined s t r e s s moderately oblique

c o n t r a s t low to medium contrast between thick and thin strokes

x - h e i g h t medium to tall in relation to cap

s e t w i d t h moderate to wide Old Style are somewhat organic in form. The ascenders tend to be taller than the and the lowercase e has a horizontal crossbar. and are examples of Old Style fonts. Working in in the late fifteenth century, created letters that combined gothic calligraphic traditions with the new Italian taste for humanist handwriting, which were based on classical models. from: Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton

examples of oldstyle: Jenson Garamond Bembo transitional characteristics 1750

t e r m i n a l s ends may be pointed, rounded, angled, ball or teardrop shape, but are lighter, sharper, and straighter than old style

s e r i f s orlightly bracketed and straighter than old style s t r e s s vertical

c o n t r a s t higher contrast than old style, medium contrast overall

x - h e i g h t medium in relation to cap

s e t w i d t h narrower than old style Transitional fonts, such as , times (shown here) and , have a more refined look than oldstyle fonts. They are called transitional because they bridge the gap between the old style to the modern cuts to follow. Mrs. Eaves, a Transitional face with some Oldstyle qualities reads as a clean, refined interpretation of Baskerville, drawn originally in the 1730’s.

examples of transitional: Baskerville Times modern characteristics 1775

t e r m i n a l s ends may be pointed, rounded, angled, ball or teardrop shape, but are lighter, sharper, and straighter than transitional

s e r i f s orlittle or no bracketing; straighter and sharper than transitional

s t r e s s vertical

c o n t r a s t high contrast between thick and thin strokes

x - h e i g h t short to medium in relation to cap

s e t w i d t h narrower than transitional

Modern fonts such as (shown here) and appear precise and mechanical and are likely to be constructed out of interchangeable parts. Generous is needed in body copy use. is an inflated, hyper-bold modern type style developed in the early nineteenth century. It is Bodoni on steroids. from: Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton

examples of modern: Bodoni Didot square characteristics 1825

t e r m i n a l s ends may be rounded or squared

s e r i f s orusually little or no bracketing and are generally as thick as the stem strokes, looking like thick slabs

s t r e s s vertical

c o n t r a s t medium to low contrast between thick and thin strokes

x - h e i g h t medium to tall in relation to cap

s e t w i d t h wide

Square serif (or egyptian) is also known as when the brackets were dropped. This face tends to look mechanical and constructed of interchangeable parts, with a dark overall look. The rise of advertising in the nineteenth century stimulated demand examples of for large-scale letters that could command attention in urban space slab serif: which transformed the serif from a refined detail to a load-bearing slab. The type historian Rob Roy Kelly created this chart to illustrate Serifa how the square serif was manipulated to create ornamental variations. Memphis from: Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton sans serif characteristics 1900

t e r m i n a l s ends may be rounded, squared or angled

s e r i f s orno serifs

s t r e s s vertical on grotesque and geometric, slightly oblique on humanist sans serif

c o n t r a s t usually little or no contrast, except in humanist

x - h e i g h t medium to tall in relation to cap

s e t w i d t h can be narrow to wide

Sans serif covers several catagories where many variations take place such as single story or double story lowercase a’s, etc. Examples are , , , and the humanist sans serif, . Tobias Frere-Jones introduced in 2000. It garnered national press when it was chosen to be used in a commemorative way for the inscription on the Freedom Tower cornerstone at the .

Designed by Paul Renner in Germany, 1927, Futura is a practical and subtle that remains widely used today.

from: Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton

examples of sans serif: Univers Helvetica Futura Meta Gill Sans This , printed by Jean Jannon for the Imprimerie Royal, examples of Paris, 1642, features roman and italic fonts that work to- script: gether as a type family. Each italic or oblique is unique and Kuestler Script designed to read with its roman family, and all professional Mistral fonts have their own italic (originated around 1500). Snell Roundhand

Working in the media of and the flexible steel pen, eighteenth-century writing masters such as George Bickham created lavishly curved scripts (originated around 1550) as well finely detailed roman capitals rendered in high contrast. Such influenced the typeface de- signs of Baskerville, Didot, and Bodoni. from: Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton