Bodoni - Contrast and Cleanliness

Bodoni

Contrast and Cleanliness

Bodoni A twenty-eight-year-old Giambattista Bodoni was asked to take charge of the Stamperia Reale, the official press of Ferdinand, Duke of Parma.

Bodoni accepted and became the private printer to the court. He printed official documents and publications desired by the Duke, in addition to projects that he conceived and initiated on his own.

His initial design influence was Fournier le Jeune, whose foundry supplied type and ornaments to the Stamperia Reale after Bodoni took charge.

The quality of Bodoni’s design and printing, even though scholarship and proofreading were sometimes lacking, created a growing international reputation. In 1790, the Vatican invited Bodoni to Rome to establish a press for printing the classics there, but the Duke countered the offer, promising an expanded facility and the privilege of printing for other clients, should Bodoni elect to remain in Parma. And so he did, thusly starting the Officina Bodoni.

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Origins of the Typeface

Bodoni was no revolutionary. The modern roman style, which is attributed to him, did not, as many would believe, spring forth as if by magic. While the letters he cut and the books he printed were more refined and of exceptionally higher quality than most of the work originating before or during his lifetime, it would be difficult to classify any of Bodoni’s efforts as fundamentally new.

When he was young, the work of John Baskerville served as his ideal; when he opened his first printing office for the Duke of Parma, Bodoni did so with type from Fournier. In fact, Bodoni had initially desired to work for Baskerville in Britain, but could not make the trip over. In later years, the work of his great Parisian competitor, Francois Didot, influenced him dramatically.

Bodoni was always, in some manner, dependent on the work of other, bolder contemporaries. Yet despite these influences, he was not a copyist.

A comparison of Bodoni’s type to Didot’s two designs that on the surface may appear virtually

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O

Note the verticality of the counter (the white space within the O), as well as the way in which the line moves smoothly from thick to thin.

identical is a perfect example. There are distinct similarities in their work, seeing as both were examples of the New Face which the two had helped to pioneer, and Bodoni surely studied Didot’s designs very carefully, but a close examination reveals key differences. Bodoni’s weight transitions are more gradual and his serifs still maintain a slight degree of bracketing. There is even hint of “old style” in Bodoni’s work. He followed Didot’s lead, carefully evaluating the designs of his great competitor, consciously remaining, however, always just slightly behind the radical modernism of his contemporary.

Perhaps this explains to some degree the longevity of Bodoni’s type designs. They were radical enough to be considered new and different (to establish for Bodoni an important and influential place in current typographic circles), but not so different that they became the 18th-century versions of fad designs.

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Letterform Basics

The counter of a letterform, such as in a P, q, o, g, etc. is the hollow, closed-off space within the bowl.

The serif comes off of the letterform at the end of the stroke. In the case of this P, it is a hairline serif.

The bowl is the curved line which, when connected at both ends to a stem, creates a counter.

The stem, or stroke is the main stroke of the letterform.

The cap height is the maximum height line of the letterforms - often lining up with the tops of the capital letterforms, the x-height is the mean line to which lowercase letters rise to.

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Cap height

X-Height

Baseline

The baseline is the line on which letterforms sit. Many letterforms curve slightly above or dip slightly below this baseline, and descenders fall below it.

The terminal is the point at the end of a descender, ascender, or ear. In this case it is a ball terminal.

Characteristics of the Typeface

Bodoni created typefaces and typography to impress the eye. His designs were studied efforts meant to be seen as well as read. Few would deny that Bodoni’s typefaces are beautiful; unfortunately, few would say they are also easy to read.

By current standards, his designs are, in fact, the antithesis of what an easily readable typeface should be. Had he known this fact, however, Bodoni would probably not have been very upset.

His goal was not to create typography to be appreciated by the masses. His books and other printing exercises were large regal efforts meant to be looked upon and appreciated as works of art, rather than as mere pieces of communication.

His modernist page layouts, with their extremely wide-set margins and limited-to-no ornamentation helped to draw attention to the type itself, and it’s high contrast strokes.

Beatrice Warde, an eminent typographic historian, in a famous essay, likened the perfect type to a crystal goblet. Her perfect type is transparent,

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abcdef ghijklm nopqrst uvwxyz 12345 67890 or invisible, to the reader and allows the content to be enjoyed without coloration or distraction.

Bodoni’s type is anything but a “crystal goblet.”

Its hairline serifs, strong thick-and-thin stroke contrast, and abrupt weight changes cloud the reading process. Bodoni is no quiet servant to the communication process; it is a design that demands attention. If used carefully, Bodoni type can create typography that is exceptionally beautiful, even elegant, but not particularly easy to read. If used poorly, Bodoni’s extreme weight contrast and vertical stress can cause a typographic effect oft referred to as “dazzling,” which is visually uninviting and exceptionally disruptive to the reading process. As it happens, many modern digital revivals of the Bodoni typeface are adjusted for large point sizes.

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Bodoni Monotype - Regular

ABCDE FGHIJK LMNOP QRSTU VWXYZ Other Fonts within Monotype Bodoni Bold Italic

Bold Italic Book Italic Ultra Bold Ultra Bold Italic

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

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Bodoni Monotype Characteristics

Bodoni typefaces, Monotype Bodoni being a characteristic example, contain tall, elongated counters, around the sides of which are thicker strokes which taper to thinner strokes at the tops and bottoms of the counter.

M Several of Monotype Bodoni’s lowercase characters contain ball terminals of slightly varying sizes and characteristics. a, c, f, g, j, r, and y all have this characteristic.

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MM ITC Bodoni

Monotype Bodoni

ITC Bodoni has a noticably higher cap height than Bodoni Monotype, making it narrower and taller.

ITC Bodoni characters have bracketed seriffs, which means that the juncture at which the stem and seriff meet is curved. This makes for better legibility at smaller point sizes.

Bauer

Contrastingly, the majority of Monotype Bodoni’s characters contain, unbracketed hairline seriffs.

Monotype

Bauer Bodoni Perhaps the most similar to its Monotype counterpart, Beauer Bodoni shares much of the same features, including hich contrast stems, hairline seriffs, elongated counters, and ball terminals.

The main difference between the two is that Bauer Bodoni characters are noticably taller and thinner than those of Monotype Bodoni.

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Q QQ Monotype Bodoni

Didot

Monotype Baskerville

While Bodoni was doubtless inspired and heavy influenced by the work of Baskerville, his own work also developed around the same time as the work of Firmin Didot, whom he too admired. This “new face” style that the two of them served to pruport linked their characters through a number of ways, namelly the strong contrast between thick and thin lines.

Monotype Bodoni Monotype Bodoni and Didot are both very similar, with their hairline seriffs, lack of bracketing, and strong thick/thin contrast. Bodoni was highly influenced by Didot’s work, and as with Baskerville, he did not stray very far into unclaimed territoriy with his own designs.

Didot The main difference between the two happens to be size. As is apparent, Didot is larger than Monotype Bodoni when set at the same point size. Didot is wider and taller than Bodoni’s design. There are also some unique examples of changes between them, such as in the intersecting and crossing strokes on the Bodoni W, not found in the Didot character, as well as the Q, for which the tail of the Bodoni Q reflects the verticality of the counter, while the tail of the Didot Q plays into the roundness of the letterform.

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W W

UUU Monotype Bodoni

ITC Bodoni

Baskerville, one of Bodono’s main influences, is perhaps most closely related to ITC Bodoni, the latter of those two being a shorter, wider version of the former, with curvier brackets and a slightly greater contrast between thick and thin.

Baskerville

Comparisons

Bodoni was one of the most prolific type designers of his day, and was considered an arch-romantic.

His hundreds of faces embrace considerable variety, and more than 25,000 of his punches are in the Bodoni Museum in Parma. The revivals issued in his name reflect only a tiny part of this legacy, and many are simply parodies of his ideas.

The typical features of Bodoni revivals are abrupt hairline serifs, ball terminal, vertical axis, small aperture, high contrast and exaggerated modulation. The ITC Bodoni, digitized in 1994-95 under the direction of Sumner Stone, are the closest of all the revivals to Bodoni’s mature style. (There are three versions, based on 6, 12 and 72 pt originals.)

Other favorites are the Bodoni cut by Louis Hoell for the Bauer Foundry, Frankfurt, in 1924, and the Berthold Foundry version, produced in 1930. Both have been issued in digital form. Small caps and text figures are essential to all of these designs.

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Bibliography

Haley, Allan. Typographic Milestones. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1992.

(SC: Z250 A2 H18 1992 4o) Lawson, Alexander S. Anatomy of a Typeface.

Boston: D.R. Godine, 1990.

(SC: Z250 L34 1990) Bringhurst, Robert. The Elements of Typographic Style. Vancouver: Hartley and Marks,1997.

(A&A: Z246 B745 1996 and Vault) Jaspert, W. Pincus. The Encyclopaedia of Typefaces. Poole, Dorset: Blandford Press; New York: Distributed in the U.S. by Sterling, 1983.

(SC: Z250 J36 1983) Cleland, T. M. Giambattista Bodoni of Parma.

Boston: Society of Printers, 1916.

(SC: Z232 B66 C5) Revival of the Fittest: Digital Versions of Classic Typefaces, essays by Carolyn Annand ... [et al.]; edited by Philip B. Meggs and Roy McKelvey, New York: RC Publications, 2000.

(A&A: Z250.R45 2000)

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Bodoni, Giambattista. Manuale Tipografico, 1788.

Facsimile a cura de Giovanni Mardersteig, Verona: Editiones Officinae Bodoni, 1968.

(SC: Z232 B66 1788a 4o) Bodoni, Giambattista. Preface to the Manuale Tipografico of 1818, translated by H. V. Marrot, London: Lion & Unicorn Press, 1953.

(SC: Z232 B66 1953) http://www.linotype.com http://www.fonts.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodoni http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giambattista_Bodoni

This book was edited and designed

by Brandon Pogrob using fonts from Monotype Bodoni, Meta Book LF, Bauer Bodoni, ITC Bodoni, Didot, and Baskerville.

Typography I Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts Washington University in St. Louis Spring 2013

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