OLD STYLE TYPESTYLES

Around 1439 the world of type design was revolutionised with the invention of Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press. The potential born from this technological advancement called for new requirements in typeface design, mainly the concept of there being more to a typeface than a general understanding of how each letter should be formed when been written by hand.
These font styles, created between the fifteenth and seventeenth century are referred to as ‘Old Style’.

Old style typefaces where, like most progressions in design and technology, an advancement from previously accepted forms of typefaces, which where, until now written by hand. For this reason, the concept of adhering to manuscript models was the basis for all Old Style typefaces.
Old Style type faces fall into two main categories; Black Letter and Roman.
The Black Letter foundation was the type style included in Gutenberg’s major work, the 42-line Bible. These typefaces are characterised by their emphasis on a solid angular structure with decorative elements that mimic the form of hand written, broad nibbed scripture writing used by the small amount of literate people at that time. The first type designs cut into wood and metal where almost literal copies of the pen drawn strokes of the scribes.

The second important category of Old Style typefaces is the ‘Roman’ style.
When printing found it’s way to Italy later in the centaury, the typing styles where influenced by a more round and curved Roman style and moved away from the original forms of the Germanic Old Style typefaces. Whilst both typefaces share common traits and are characterised by an oblique line structure that mimics the angle of a scribes pen, in the case of the Roman contemporaries, there is minimal variation between thick and thin strokes, and a now unfamiliar case structure in which lower case ascenders will often stand taller than capitals. In addition and as evidence indicating a lack of knowledge towards the importance of simple and legible type for the production of block text, there is also a common trend of cupped serifs on lower and angled serifs on higher ascenders.

A detail from Gutenberg’s 42-line Bible.
http://typographia.oszk.hu/html/uk/gutenberg_uk.htm

Thomas Kilburn

Garamond — typeface

Garamond typefaces offer elegance and readability, making them suitable for a wide range of applications. Since it is such a popular typeface, it may be interesting to also explore alternatives, such as Sabon, Granjon, Maiola and Fabiol.

Claude Garamond (1480-1561) was a French publisher and type designer whose designs are the basis for many modern Garamond versions. Others are based on designs of Jean Jannon, a French printer who was also inspired by Garamond’s work. Over the years, their designs have inspired many foundries.

At the beginning for the 20th century ATF, Monotype and D. Stempel AG released new revisions. ITC Garamond was designed in 1975 by Tony Stan for the International Typeface Corporation. Robert Slimbach created the Adobe version in 1989.

From 1983 to 2001 Apple used ITC Garamond as their corporate font. They actually had Bitstream condense it 80% because the existing ITC Garamond Condensed, at 64%, was considered too narrow. This version of Garamond is known as Apple Garamond. For years Bitstream sold it under the name of ITC Garamond Narrow.

Pian Pian Zheng

Bibliography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AdobeGaramondSp.svg
http://www.prepressure.com/fonts/interesting/garamond

Dwiggins, William Addison

(b. 19/06/1880 Martinsville, Ohio — d. 25/12/1956 Hingham, Massachusetts) William Addison Dwiggins was an American graphic designer who worked in a wide range of communication fields such as, book design, typography, calligraphy, lettering and illustration. He himself is the first person to use the term ‘Graphic Design’ when talking about his work; it was only after the Second World War was over that the term was widely used. WAD, as he used to call him self, is well know for his development of type.

He designed many fonts still used today like the Electra Font, Elante Font, Metrolite Font Family, New Caledonia Font and ITC New Winchester Font.

Respect was also given to him after he designed a sans serif font that people liked. William Addison Dwiggnis enjoyed to wood carve and decided to create a marionette theater in his garage. In his early days he also used to learn from and collaborate with Frederic Goudy.

Vassliy Zavialov

Bibliography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Addison_Dwiggins
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/William_Addison_Dwiggins.aspx
http://www.facebook.com/pages/William-Addison-Dwiggins/88000889621
http://www.linotype.com/373/williamadwiggins.html
http://giam.typepad.com/100_years_of_illustration/images/2007/09/10/wad_1955.jpg
http://mailonsunday.livejournal.com/42443.html

Didot, François-Ambroise

Son of François Didot, François-Ambroise inherited his father's skills and kept the legacy of printing, publishing, and typefounding began by his father. He improved the standard of type design allowing a greater contrast between thick and thin letter, to him we owe the measurement in points of the fonts (type size), and the standard of the 72 french inch measure.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/162510/Francois-Ambroise-Didot < 28 oct 09 10.30am

Maria Carrasco

Bodoni, Giambattista

Giambattista Bodoni was an Italian printer and typographer born in Saluzzo, Italy in 1740. He is most renowned for designing a typeface now known as Bodoni (see fig 1). Both his father and grandfather were printers, and his first apprenticeship was one of a high standard — Propaganda Fire, the Vatican's printing house in Rome. He finished his apprenticeship and thanks to his dedication, enthusiasm and skill attained management at the Royal Press, the press of the Duke of Parma. The printing house was a great success, and it was not long before his own works made an appearance. The success lead to the Duke allowing Bodoni to open a printing house of his own, the Officina Bodoni, with which he produced more than 300 typefaces. The Bodoni typeface is characterised by its contrast of the thick main body of the letterform and the thin, sharp serifs (the short lines at the ends of the strokes of the letter). This contrast makes the font look delicate and fragile yet still evokes an edginess, qualities which many designers seek to obtain. Bodoni's typeface has had a huge impact on contemporary typography with Bodoni-esque font being used widely within all aspects of design.

Bibliography
Books
Cleland, T.M, (1916) Giambattista Bodoni of Parma, Society of Printers, Boston.
Internet
B-net. 2009. Giambattista Bodoni: King of typographer, typographer of kings. [Online] Available at: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3992/is_200107/ai_n8978403/ [Accessed 27 October 2009]
Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2009. Giambattista Bodoni. [Online] Available at: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/71084/Giambattista-Bodoni [Accessed on 27 October 2009]

Scott English

Bembo, Pietro

Pietro Bembo was an Italian cardinal who made himself an important figure in the history/development of Italian language. Literary theorist and writer Bembo’s ideas and interests were important to redefine literary interests in his XV century Italy. He was born in 1470, Venice. During his lifetime he was dedicated to the study of Italian literature, and wrote himself a treatise about Italian poetry that latter became his most notorious work; Prose della vulgar lingua. His ideas were also important in the formation of the musical form called madrigal. The typeface named Bembo was named after him.

Rafael Camisassa

'Eusebius' — De Praeparatione evangelica

De Praeparatione evangelica

1470 was the date that ‘Eusebius' De Praeparatione evangelica’ was first printed, and with it came the establishment of the first true Roman typeface. The typography, which would later become known as ‘Venetian oldstyle’, was designed by the French engraver Nicolas Jenson. Jenson’s pioneering typeface was influenced by the humanistic hand developed in manuscripts by Italian intellectuals such as Poggio Bracciolini. ‘De Praeparatione evangelica’ saw the liberation of European printing, with Venice pushing printing away from the Gothic typefaces of the past. Jenson’s influence on the world of type continued long after his death in 1480, with William Morris, Doves Press, and Bruce Rogers all looking to emulate a type that was ‘so intelligently and carefully elaborated that the letters are neither smaller, larger nor thicker than reason or pleasure demand.’

Image: Eusebius' De Praeparatione evangelica, Nicolas Jenson, 1470.

http://www.brynmawr.edu/Library/exhibits/BooksPrinters/making.html#euseb
http://www.typofonderie.com/gazette/articles/typehistory
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/data/indiv/rare/type-exhibit/2rvi/eusebius.htm
http://www.linotype.com/731/nicolausjenson.html

Christopher Lacy

Akzindenz Grotesk, Typeface

Akzindenz Grotesk is a sans serif typeface which was first published in the late 1800s (under the title Accindenz Grotesk) by one of the most successful and largest foundries in the whole world, the German type foundry H.Berthold. Akzindenz Grotesk was the first sans serif to be used across the board as it became popular and known by the public immediately. This typeface is seen everywhere as it is very useful to use it in magazines, newspaper headlines, price lists, forms and text because of its clearness, ''They gave Akzindenz-Grotesk the ultimate accolade a typeface can have: a functional, formal rightness, transcending whims of fashion'' by Karl Gerstner. It has influenced plenty other typefaces later.

Bibliography:
http://www.rightreading.com/typehead/akzindenz_grotesque.htm

Basma AlMashat

Gutenberg, Johann

Johann Gutenberg (1398-1468) was a German print maker. Who established himself as one of history’s most important creators by inventing the Mechanical Printing press in 1448. His invention was one of history’s most important tools, the process of the printing press, uses movable ink covered blocks of letters and imagery pressed onto flat paper. This helped develop the process book making faster, more reliable, cheaper and less time consuming. Before this the majority of people were using methods such as “Block printing”. This was very popular during this era, however due to such intensive labour, it made it very expensive for books to be made. In that time book’s could only be afforded by wealthy people. Before his invention, he partnered up with Johann Fust, who financially helped Gutenburg to create his machine and made it possible for him to create the “Gutenburg Bible”, which today is valued at over $100(US) million.

Robert Taylor

http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/gutenberg.html
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/printpress.htm

Bembo, typeface

Bembo is an old style serif typeface, first printed in February 1496. It was first used in
a book entitled De Aetna, published by the Venetian printer Aldus Manutius. At this
time Italian typographers had moved away from attempting to imitate calligraphy and handwriting, and instead were inspired by classical Roman inscriptions. What is known today as Bembo is a revival of the original, and was created by Monotype Corporation,
under the directions of Stanley Morison. Bembo’s longevity is remarkable, especially with the technological advances and changes in trends, and the design can still be appreciated outside its historical context.