Allison& Spitaels

Jenson has a bigger Jenson has a longer tail nubbin that is and ’s curve upturned is more angular

Both the Centaur and Jenson are based off the work of . Nicolas Jenson was a born in France in 1420 and died in Italy in 1480. He began his career as a die cutter for creating coins, he later became the master of the royal mint in France. In 1458 he studied printing under Johannes Gutenburg and in 1470 he opened a print shop in Venice. He created the idea of roman and greek style that is still used to this day. Bruce Rogers designed the digital Centaur based off one of Nicholas Jenson’s books. He worked with photographs of the book and eventually bought a copy himself. His fi rst attempt to design the typeface did not yeild a result he was happy with, and he attempted it again ten years later and made the typeface we know as Centaur. Jenson was designed by Robert Slimbach for Adobe and is based off of Jenson’s work but it less true to the original prints. Centaur is more true to Jenson’s original prints than Jenson is which has been tweaked for easier reading. The main differences between the two is that Jenson has a bigger x height and has slightly thicker thicks. The defi ning features of Centaur are the angular curves of the Js which Jenson does not use.

1.“Centaur® - Fonts.com.” Fonts.com. http://www.fonts.com/font/monotype-imaging/centaur#product_ top (accessed November 10, 2012).

2.“Nicolas Jenson (French printer) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia.” Britannica Online Encyclopedia. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/302641/Nicolas-Jenson (accessed November 10, 2012).

3. White, Alex W.. “Nicolas Jenson’s Typographic Contributions | Type Directors Club.” Type Directors Club | Promoting excellence in typography for over 65 years.. http://www.tdc.org/archives/2227/ (accessed November 10, 2012).