Typography Book

Fu-Chieh F Chi h Wu Fu-Chieh u- e Wu

A typeface is a beautiful collection of letters not a collection of beautiful letters — Matthew Carter

swash

bar

terminal

x-height

ascender shoulder

tittle stem 2

beak

decender

ligature

apex

bracket

serif

tail

spur

eye

bowl

crotch

link

ear

loop Typography Anatomy

IIIIII

Caslon 6 Didot 16 Clarendon 26 Futura 36 Officina46 Poetica56

Caslon William Caslon 1725

William Caslon designed Caslon in 1725 based on contemporary Dutch typefaces, and it successfully became one of the influential British typefaces. Instead of Rococo’s embellished quality, Caslon values for its clear functionality. It satisfies both estheticly and legibily. Caslon became a widely used typeface in England and the United States. The Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were set in Caslon Roman.

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ITC Caslon was released in 1998 drawn by Justin Howes. It has four weights: Book, Medium, Bold, and Black, as well as italic versions.

Caslon

Garamond Caslon Baskerville

As an old style typeface, Caslon has always been compared with Garamond and Baskerville—one is humanist style, and the other is transitional style. The differences between those three typefaces, first of all, is Caslon kept the old style serifs, which are round-finished.

However, the serifs become one key feature to recognize Caslon because it is longer, heavier, and shaper.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890!@#$%^&*(?)

1234567890!@#$%^&*(?)

1234567890!@#$%^&*(?)

Caslon

ppqq pq pq The dramatic terminals in Caslon's lowercase a distinguish it from Garamond and Baskerville. Compared with them, Caslon is also recognized for its shorter desenders, higher xheight, and larger counters.

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Additionally, the flowering quality that Caslon has in its italic font is the most distinctive characteristic.

Caslon

Garamond

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 [!&$%*?;@] flfi†‡¢Æœ

Caslon

Baskerville

Caslon has greater contrast than old style typefaces and eliminates the calligraphic quality of Garamond.

The other features are the vertical stress and the outstanding ear on the top of g.

Caslon

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ðøµþ† when in

use

Caslon William Caslon

AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKk LlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUu VvWwXxYyZz 1234567890 AaBbCcDdEeFf GgHhIiJjKk LlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUu VvWwXxYyZz 1234567890 AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKk LlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUu VvWwXxYyZz 1234567890 Didot, created by Firmin Didot in 1783, launched the Modern style which has a high contrast.

Following Baskerville’s style, Didot eradicates the calligraphic references and highly developed structural shape.

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Didot Firmin Didot 1783

Didot

T

vertical stress and dramatic contrast are categorized as a typical Modern typeface. During the 1930s, Didot was one of the typefaces widely used in magazines and fashion branding because of its elegant, skeletal and feminine quality.

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he

Didone typefaces are known for the extreme of the thick and thin. While comparing Didot with other alternatives, it is distinct from them with its unbracketed hairline serifs.

Didot

VOGUE VOGUE VOGUE Didot pt

••••

Bodoni 90pt

••••

Fairfield 90pt

••••

Unlike the gentle curves and faint brackets that Bodoni designed for the ascenders and descenders, Didot has sharper finish to the horizontal serifs.

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Additionally, Didot has greater contrast than other didone typefaces, so it is hard to print at small sizes on paper as a text type; to this concern, Fairfield becomes a better choice for body copy.

•• Didot ••

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz •• Bodoni ••

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz •• Fairfield ••

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Didot

0123456789 0123456789 0123456789

Didot

Bodoni

Fairfield

Didot has both lining and nonlining numerals, as pose Bodini and Fairfield. The height of numerals references the x-height. Didot has an intermediate height between Bodoni and Fairfield.

•••••••••••••••★•••

Didot

was the black blade that cut the

white space

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Abbott Miller

Clarendon Robert Besley 1845

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Clarendon is the typeface that Robert Besley, a British designer, created for the Fann Street Foundry in 1845. The flourishing growth of the advertising and printing industry in the nineteenth century saw the emergence of slab serif typefaces.

Letterform assumed the role of image, and Clarendon easily grabbed people’s attention with its bold personality. Clarendon has light, roman, bold weights and doesn't have accompanied italic fonts.

ABCDEFGHIJKLM NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

ABCDEFGHIJKLM NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

ABCDEFGHIJKLM NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Clarendon

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz {fifl!?} (clarendon) 1234567890 [@#$%^&*] ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz {fifl!?} (calvert) 1234567890 [@#$%^&*] ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz {fifl!?} (rockwell) 1234567890 [@#$%^&*]

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As a slab serif typeface, or Egyptian style, Clarendon is different from other typefaces. It embraces both humanist brackets and the geometric slab serif, creating an illusion of extra weight. Furthermore, the contrast of thickness in the bowls is highly recognizable in a group of slab serif typefaces.

E

K

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why K arrow counters

contrasting stoke

ball terminal

T

he uppercase is distinguished by high- contrasting strokes and the almost colsed counters. The capital C, E, G own particularly tiny gaps between the serifs; in the same way, the tiny vertical gaps also occur in capital H, K, V, as well as the small letters.

The key feature of the Clarendon typeface is its lowercase letters: the smiling a with a turning up tail, the ball terminals in the end of j and y, and the dropped ears of g and r.

Clarendon

W

hen lining up the alphabets, Clarendon clearly stands out because of its short descenders and its characteristic cuts.

"smiling" a 32

drop ears

upward turning tails

Clarendon

NEedsTo to be BeaudIble¶ AuDible¶ neEdS NeeDs nEedStO ToBe be FeLt¶ fElt¶ NEeds neEDsto tObE beeXpeRieNCeD¶ ExPerIenCEd¶ — Helmut Schmid

Futura Paul Renner 1927

In the early twentieth century, the German book designer and educator, Paul Renner was inspiring by the modernist movements like Bauhaus. Futura, the functiondriven typeface, was released in 1927. It detaches ornamentations from the past style, remaining only with basic geometric shapes.

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od

Futura

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AaBbCcDdEe FfGgHhIiJjKkL lMmNnOoPp QqRrSsTtUuV vWwXxYyZz, !?@#$%^&*-

Light Condensed Light Condensed Oblique Medium Condensed Medium Condensed Oblique Bold Condensed Bold Condensed Oblique Extra Bold Condensed Extra Bold Condensed Oblique Light Light Oblique Book Book Oblique Medium Meidum Oblique Heavey Heavy Oblique Bold Bold Oblique Extra Bold Extra Bold Oblique The first draft that Renner produced had several fonts that were all based on geometric form. He modified the original release to include light, medium, bold and bold oblique variations; other additional weights were designed over the next three decades.

Futura

Although the strokes of Futura seem monoline, the subtle contrast occurs in the bowls of a, d, p toward the junctions. Furthermore, the circular shapes that Futura presents are not a perfect circle; in fact, it is an ovoid.

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The lowercase has higher heights while setting in the same size with capital letters. Most terminals cut in either vertical or horizontal ways, except lowercase e, r, and s.

Futura

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It is difficult to tell the differences between the geometric san serif typefaces if seeing them separately.

However, when putting them together, the dissimilarities are obvious.

Futura

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz {fifl!?} 1234567890 [@#$%^&*] Gill Sans

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz {fifl!?} 1234567890 [@#$%^&*] Kabel

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz {fifl!?} 1234567890 [@#$%^&*] Futura

OT H E R K I D S PL AYED WI TH L EGO BUT I HAD SOME F U T URA AND SOME G ILL Erik Spiekermann

Officina Erik Spiekermann 1990

The German typographer, Erik Spiekermann, released Officina Sans as well as Officina Serif in 1990.

They were intentionally designed for low-resolution printers in the business workplace. The condensed typeface was driven from the typewriter type and transformed into a contemporary performance with better optical adjustments. Although the Officina family was designed as a office text, it has widespread use because of its utilitarian quality.

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od od

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z ( 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 ) [ ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ? ] {fifl}

Officina Sans

{fifl}

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z ( 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 ) [ ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ? ] Officina

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z ( 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 ) [ ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ? ] {fifl} Officina Serif {fifl} A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z ( 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 ) [ ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ? ] 48

Officina Sans and Officina Serif share some of the same letterforms: uppercase I, J, O, and Q, and lowercase e, g, j ,o and t.

Officina

LET'S show 50

Officina Serif is notable by its inconsistent slab serifs and smooth edges. Contrary to another slab serif typeface, Rockwell, Officina Serif has round corners in its slab serifs and ink traps in some letters.

MN

Rockwell

Officina

The letter k has a distinct difference form other typefaces because its arm and leg meet evenly at the stem, which creates triangular counters.

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The asymmetrical geometric typeface, Officina, has unique features that differentiate from other san serif typefaces and slab serif typefaces. For instance, Officina Sans embodies the slab serifs only in lowercase i and j but not other letters.

ijijijijijijijijijijij ijijijijijijijijijij ijijijijijijijijijijij Officina

In Officina Sans, the distinguished features are the oblique cut in the ascenders and descenders as well as the curved details in the lowercase letters, such as b, d, m, n, p and q. Additionally, the curved foot of lowercase l and unjoined diagonals of lowercase y are recognizable characters in both fonts.

Officina

Poetica Robert Slimbanch 1992

In 1992, Robert Slimbanch designed Poetica, the flamboyant italic typeface, based on chancery scripts of the Italian Renaissance. Slimbanch developed the original letters in italic formats and then extended in about ten variations for each letters in decorative style.

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regular

ABCDEFGHIJKLNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz (!#$%&,*)[¢£¥]{¿ÁËŒƒ} swash

ABCDEFGHIJKLNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz (!#$%&,*)[¢£¥]{¿ÁËŒƒ} small caps

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz (!#$%&,*)[¢£¥]{¿ÁËŒƒ} numbers

01234567890123456789¼½¾⅓⅔⅛⅜⅝⅞

Poetica

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The ligature system of Peotica is extremely abundant. It includes several rare ligatures that other typefaces don’t have, such as, the uppercase combinations, and the lowercase gg, sf, sp, ss, th, ft, etc. Some of them have more than one option. For instance, the gg ligatire offers both one story and two story alternatives.

Poetica

Due to its beautiful swash ornaments, Poetica is an approprate typeface for both decorative and legible purpose. It is surprising to find there are numerous alternatives for both uppercase and lowercase.

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The variations are designed in progressive exageration base on the original letterform, except the letter o that maintains the same shape throughout the whole collection.

Poetica

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&&&

Poetica offers an unprecedented amount of ampersands. It includes about sixty delicate alternatives.

This is due to Poetica's reference to old style calligraphy.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

P

oetica doesn't have the slender quality and hard-reading lowercase that other scripts have.

Instead, Poetica offers a utilitarian typographic design, which has heavier weight and less contrast than other scripts. Thus, the legibility of the lowercase is easier to read as a body type.

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Poetica

BIBLIOGRAPHY BOOKS The Complete Typographer Will Hill Pearson Prentice Hall, 1992.

Typography and Graphic Design Roxane Jubert Flammarion, 2006

Thinking With Type, 2nd ed Ellen Lupton Princeton Architectural Press, 2010

Font. The Sourcebook Nadine Monem, eds.

Black Dog Publishing Limited, 2008

Typeface: Classic Typography for Contemporary Desgin Tamye Riggs Princeton Architectural Press, 2009

WEBSITES Fonts. com. www.fonts.com Linotype. www.linotype.com MyFonts. new.myfonts.com The Typehead Chronicles. www.rightreading.com Typedia. typedia.com Typeface Web Site. msp.sfsu.edu/instructors/ 窶ビsellers/spring_1998/index.html

Designed and Written by Fu-Chieh Wu Savannah College of Art and Desgin, GA, U.S.A GRDS 709 Typography Studio I Professor Robert Newman First Edition produced on November, 2010 Second Edition produced on July, 2011

Caslon Didot Clarendon Futura Officina Poetica