is for Garamond 1
CLAUDE GARAMOND
author C Claude Garamont (1490 - 1561), commonly known as Claude Garamond, was a French publisher and punch-cutter from Paris.
laude Garamond was born ca. 1480 and died 1561 in Paris, France. He was the first punch cutter to work independently of printing firms. His roman typefaces were designed with such perfection that French printers in the sixteenth century were able to print books of extraordinary legibility and beauty. Garamond is credited, by the sheer quality of his fonts, with a major role in eliminating Gothic styles from compositor’s cases all over Europe, except in Germany. The fonts Garamond cut during the 1540’s achieved a mastery of visual form, a snugness of fit, that allowed closer word spacing, and a harmony of design between capitals, lowercase, and italic.1 3
FIRST APPEARANCE
timeline I
n 1530 Garamond’s first type is used in an edition of the book Paraphrasis in Elegantiarum Libros Laurentii Vallae by Erasmus. It is based on Aldus Manutius’ type De Aetna, cut in 1455. In 1540, King Francis I commissions Garamond to cut a Greek type. Garamond’s ensuing Grec du Roi is used by Robert Estienne, a Parisian scholar-printer, in three sizes exclusively for the printing of Greek books. The Garamond designs of the 1550’s were used in numerous Estienne books, winning praise from many other book printers and gaining widespread acclaim.2
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Garamond now and then (above): Modern Garamond Original Garamond
Regular
Italic
Bold
g
ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTUVXYZ abcdefghijlmnopqrstuvzyz ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTUVXYZ abcdefghijlmnopqrstuvzyz
ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTUVXYZ abcdefghijlmnopqrstuvzyz
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FORMS AND SHAPES
letterform T
he original Garamond letterforms, as well as many other roman types of the 16th century, are classified as Garalde or old style. A horizontal bar on the e, bracketed serifs, axis curves that are inclined to the left, and notable contrast between thick and thin strokes are all typical features of this style. Traits particular to Garamond include the small bowl of the a and small eye of the e, the downward slope of most top serifs, and the long extender. These attributes are fairly consistent among all variations.3
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Characteristics of Garalde style (right): 1 bracketed serifs (serifs blend to
stroke with a smooth curve) 2 asix that are inclined to the left 3 notable contrast between thin
strokes and thick strokes 4 horizontal bar on the e
ligature
ascender
ascender height
x height descender height serifs descender
1
4
2
3
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GARAMOND vs. GARAMOND
variations F
rancesco Simoncini’s Garamond (of the Simoncini foundry of Bologna, 1958), and that of the Stempel foundry (which later became Linotype) was designed in 1924 in Frankfurt. Another Garamond was developed by Monotype in 1922 by Fritz Max Steltzer at Salfords. And more recently, thanks to Postscript and Bezier curves, that of Adobe was drawn up by Robert Slimbach in San Francisco in 1988, preceded by Tony Stan’s very elegant Garamond of 1970 for the International Typeface Corp (ITC) in New York.4
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Different types of Garamond: Garamond Stempel Garamond Monotype Adobe Garamond ITC Garamond
Different types of Garamonds and their distinct features
Garamond Stempel
Adobe Garamond
Garamond Monotype
ITC Garamond 9
BEAUTY AND LEGIBILITY
characteristics W
ikipedia calls Garamond one of the “most legible and readable serif typefaces for use in print.� The larger x-heights normally correspond to increase readability online. Garamond is (as noted above) elegant and beautiful. While the face has a lot of personality and style, it still maintains a level of professionalism. Like other Old Style serifs, it has something of a traditional feel, and perhaps more so as it is based on faces from the 16th and 17th centuries. However, it does not feel outdated—the sharp points on the serifs and long extenders move it from old fashioned to timeless.5
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1 (top) baseline serif
tends to be long and elegantly curved 2 (left) dot sits between
letter width
5 a font is considered
legible when half of the letters can be read easily
3 (right) varied stroke-
weight: heaviest strokes are at 2 and 8 o’clock positions
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(right) bidirectional serifs on the top of capital T
(bottom left) ample intercharacter spacing and open spaces; small counter in the lower-case a and small eye in the e
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(bottom right) serifs guide the eye accross the text; large x-height also maximize the readability
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SIMILAR AND DIFFERENT
comparisons O
pinion varies regarding the role of Claude Garamond in the development of the range of contemporary typefaces that bear his name. What is accepted is the influence his work had on other typefaces from the late Renaissance to the present. Fonts named Garamond, or Garamont, are related to the alphabets of Claude Garamond as well as to the work of Jean Jannono (1580–1635 or 1658), much of which was attributed to Garamond. In comparison to the earlier Italian letterforms, Garamond has finer serifs and a generally more elegant image.6
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(right) Comparisons between Garamond and a similar type face, Baskerville and a very different one, Century Gothic.
While Baskerville and Garamond have similar letter widths with elegant curves, along with small counter on the a, Century Gothic has a very large letter width and counter with no tail. Century Gothic also differs because it is a sans-serif font, meaning it has no serif (look at the top of letter M for example). Apart from both having serifs, Garamond and Baskerville also have similar amount of contrast between light and heavy strokes but Garamond stands out with a slightly lower overhang on the M.
Baskerville Regular
Garamond Regular
Century Gothic Book
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
REFERENCES
Lawson, Alexander S. Anatomy of a typeface. Boston: D.R. Godine, 1990. (SC: Z250 L34 1990)
1 Philip B. Meggs, A History of Graphic Design (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1992),102-104.
Jaspert, W. Pincus. The Encyclopaedia of Typefaces. Poole, Dorset: Blandford Press; New York: Distributed in the U.S. by Sterling, c1983. (SC: Z250 J36 1983) Haley, Allan. Typographic Milestones. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, c1992. (SC: Z250 A2 H18 1992 4o)
2 Friedrich Fried, Typography: an Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Throughout History (New York: Black Dog & Leventhal), 241.
Friedl, Friedrich. Typography: An Encyclopedic Survey of Type design and Techniques Throughout History. New York: Black Dog & , c1998. (SC: Z250.A2 F76 1998 4o)
3 David Steadman, Revival of the Fittes: Digital Versions of Classic Typefaces (New York: RC Publications), 112.
Monotype Corporation. Garamond: A Specimen of a Classic Letter Reproduced in Eight Sizes for use on the “Monotype.” London: Lanston Monotype Corporation, 1926. (SC: Z250 M66)
4 Peter Gabor, Garamond v Garamond, Available at http:// barneycarroll.com/garamond.htm
Bringhurst, Robert. The Elements of Typographic Style. Vancouver: Hartley and Marks, 2004. (A&A: Z246 B745 1996 and Vault) Meggs, B. Philip. A History of Graphic Design. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1992. (A&A: Z244.5.M42 1998 and Vault) 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) http://www.linotype.com http://www.fonts.com
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5 Screen Space, Available at http://screenspace.org/?p=744 6 Linotype Library GmbH, Available at http://www.linotype. com/7-1565-7-13374/garamond.html. Accessed November 1, 2005
This book was made by Chanel Luu Hai for Typography I class at Washington University in St. Louis. The typefaces were used in this book were Garamond Monotype, Stemple Garamond, Adobe Garamond, Garamond 3 URW, ITC Garamond, Baskerville and Century Gothic. The paper used was Mohawk Superfine White Smooth, 80 text weight. All graphics were designed by Chanel Luu Hai
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