Baskerville by Charmaine Sah

John Baskerville

Understanding Baskerville

Understanding Baskerville by Charmaine Sah

Contents

1 About Baskerville 2 Origin 3 Evolution of Type 4 Type Characteristics 5 Usage of Baskerville

Introduction

This book is a guide to understand Baskerville and its beauty. It takes you from its origin to how it evolved through years. The book also talks about its charachteristics and usage.I chose to make a book on a typeface as Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d always wanted to work with typography and layout, and I chose Baskerville because of its versatality in different jonours of print media.

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank My facilitatator Mukund VR for giving me this opportunity to make a book on the beautiful typeface Baskerville and constantly giving me feedback which motivated me to work better. My thanks and appreciation also goes to my roomate Adisha, who constantly gave me feedback which helped me improve the book.

Baskerville

About Baskerville

John Baskerville , (born Jan. 28, 1706, Wolverley, Worcestershire, Eng. died Jan. 8, 1775, Birmingham, Warwickshire), English printer and creator of a typeface of great distinction bearing his name, whose works are among the finest examples of the art of printing. Baskerville became a writing master at Birmingham but in 1740 established a japanning (varnishing) business, whose profits enabled him to experiment in typefounding. He set up a printing house and in 1757 published his first work, an edition of Virgil, followed in 1758 by an edition of John Milton.

Baskerville, designed in 1754, is most known for its crisp edges, high contrast and generous proportions. It is categorized as a transitional typeface in-between classical typefaces . The mathematically-drawn characters felt cold, and prompted Baskerville to create a softer typeface with rounded bracketed serifs and a vertical axis. Baskerville increased the contrast between thick and thin strokes, making the serifs sharper and more tapered, and shifted the axis of rounded letters to a more vertical position. The curved strokes are more circular in shape, and the characters became more regular. 2

Origin

Origin of Baskerville

It is difficult to appreciate the qualities of Baskerville without first understanding the process of its creation. Baskerville grew out of an ongoing experimentation with printing technology. John Baskerville developed his own method of working, resulting in beautifully bright woven paper and darker inks. He created an intense black ink color through the tedious process of boiling fine linseed oil to a certain thickness, dissolving rosin, allowing months for it to subside and finally grinding it before use. 4

ABCDEFG HIJKLMN OPQRSTU VWXYZ abcdefg hijklmn opqrstu vwxyz 0123456789 5

Origin of Baskerville

As printers would not willingly reveal the methods within their print shops, Baskerville followed other printers closely and made the same purchases as them in hopes of setting up the same press. This routine resulted in the development of higher standards for presses altogether.Existing printing presses did not capture the subtleties of his type, so Baskerville redesigned the press replacing the wooden platen with a brass one in order to allow the planes to meet more evenly.

The wooden platens were usually covered with thick tympanum which helped to absorb pressure and reduce type depth, however, Baskervilleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s press used thin tympanum around the metal and the platens were even heated before using them. It was the combination of the contrasting cut in his letterforms, the process of printing, the gloss of his paper and the intensity of his inks that made each print so refined. 6

e p y t f o n o i t u l o Ev

Evolution of Type

Baskerville is classified as a transitional typeface, meaning that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s style was the stepping stone from old style typefaces such as Caslon, to modern typefaces such as Didot and Bodoni. Transitional typefaces tended to be disliked in their time, as people were so used to traditional type that the new changes seemed drastic to them, however today they are appreciated because they are one step down in contrast from the modern typefaces. 8

sss r rr e ee Caslon

Didot

Baskerville

Evolution of Type

When John Baskerville designed his namesake typeface, his goal was to perfect the styles of a much older typeface, Caslon. The idea was to make it more legible, for the time period was Wexperimenting with Wreadability as well as paper and ink manufacturing. However after Baskerville started to be used, many claimed that his style was “too stark” and the printing “damaged the eyes.” When the modern style typefaces

were released, Bodoni in particular, Baskerville was pushed even further down on the shit list of type. This made poor old Baskerville essentially obsolete until 1917, when Bruce Rogers gave it life again for the Harvard University Press. After that, popularity increased dramatically, making Baskerville so well known today. Unfortunately John Baskerville passed in 1775, so he never got any real fame or wealth for his now loved font.

Type Characteristics

Type Charateristics

B M sculpted serif

contrast in thick and thin strokes

C O

uppercase C has serifs on both

vertical stress

Type Characteristics

Q Q has a wash like tail

uppercase A has a high crossbar and a pointed apex

e a

horizontal cross bar

thick/thin contrast

Type Characteristics

g d

wedge shaped serifs

lowerface g is open

Usage

Usage of Baskerville

Select fables of ESOP 1761, The first illustrated book from the celebrated Baskerville Press, with 16 copperplate engravings, in contemporary calf First Baskerville edition of Aesopâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fables, together with modern and original moral tales

The Holy Bible, Containing the Old Testament and the New. Cambridge : John Baskerville, 1763 First Baskerville edition, one of only 1250 copies, in handsome contemporary morocco-gilt binding. “This edition ‘has always been regarded as Baskerville’s magnum opus and is his most magnificent as well as his most characteristic specimen” “Aesthetically, the highest point in English Bible printing so far was John Baskerville’s folio printed at Cambridge in 1763… The Bible uses his types, paper and ink, and shows his characteristic ‘machine-made’ finish: very smooth and even in color and impression, with glossy black ink on smooth paper.

The 1662 Book of Common Prayer (still the official Prayer Book of the Church of England) has gone through literally hundreds of printings. Of these many printings, only a few stand out, chief among which are a series done by John Baskerville between 1760 and 1762. His printings of the Book of Common Prayer, done as printer at Cambridge University, came in three basic flavors: single column, two column, and with or without lozenge border decorations. It appears in David Griffiths’ Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer as 1762/4; and is #19 in Phillip Gaskell’s bibliography of Baskerville’s works.

Bibliography

https://morganlmurrayims224researchtopic.wordpress.com/baskerville/ http://www.rightreading.com/typehead/baskerville.htm http://ilovetypography.com/2008/01/17/type-terms-transitional-type/ http://alphabetevolution.rifai.ru/pages/evolutiontable.htm https://www.linotype.com/702/john-baskerville.html http://idsgn.org/posts/know-your-type-baskerville/