Baskerville
Lauren Gillette Introduction to Typography Fall 2011
Baskerville Italic 600pt Mrs Eaves Italic 600pt
Table of Contents Baskerville: The Original pg 4 Baskerville: The Revivals pg 10 Baskerville: In Use
pg 14
Bibliography
pg 18
Baskerville the original The transitional typeface Baskerville is one that has so far proven to be timeless. It is a cross between old style and modern incorporating the best characteristics of both styles into one typeface. This is all a result of the passion of John Baskerville. John Baskerville was born in Worcestershire, England in 1706, though he lived the majority of his life in Birmingham, England. He initially made his living selling Japanned wares; goods inspired by Japan that were varnished in a par ticular way to create a certain hard finish. By 1750, his success selling these goods allowed him to pursue his passion of printing as a hobby with no financial concerns. His amateur inter ests in type were not a means of survival but purely an effort to create what he felt was the perfect letterform. As he stated within the pre face of his 1758 edition of works of Milton, “I
formed to myself ideals of greater accuracy than had yet appeared, and have endeavored to produce a Set of Types according to what I conceived to be their true proportion.” Baskerville’s motivation to enter the business of printing came in part from an urge to improve upon the typeface of William Caslon. Caslon, born in 1692, created the first unrivaled British typeface as opposed to the many available that were imported from Holland. The typeface is classified today as Old-Style and is heavily influenced by many Dutch typefaces popular during the time of creation. Caslon is considered very readable as an effect of its ‘uniquely friendly individuality’ and its characteristics drawn from calligraphy. Defining characteristics of the typeface, and other Old Style typefaces alike, include an angled
Basker ville | 5 Portrait of John Baskerville (1706-1775)
Q Q Baskerville Regular 600pt, navy Baskerville Italic 600pt, orange Caslon Regular 600pt, gray
Basker ville | 7
Q Q
weight shift, also referred to as a reclined weight shift, and a larger x-height that lends itself to legibility. These characteristics were altered by the work of Baskerville, leading his typeface to be classified as transitional in retrospect. Baskerville’s typeface was created during the period now known as the Enlightenment, which is considered a time where artistic endeavors disregarded traditional ideals. In this regard, Baskerville sought out methods to differentiate his work. His process abandoned the strong focus on the three dimensional aspects of letterpress for a focus on the inscription itself. He reinvented the printing press to incorporate hot copper plates which each piece of paper ran through before printing. He also had his paper woven according to his own specifications in order to increase the visual quality of the finished works. It is reported that he submitted his marbled paper designs into a competition at the Royal College of Arts. Furthermore, he created a new process for forming his ink, which was a very tedious endeavor. First, fine linseed oil was boiled to a certain
thickness, then rosin was dissolved, and after months the combination to could be ground. resulting in ink of a very intense black color. These technical improvements alone made a huge difference within his printing, allowing for greater precision and more subtle impressions which then enabled the printing of more delicate types. Baskerville’s serious level of perfectionism meant that his typeface required seven years to complete. He intended to avoid a handwritten appearance, instead going for a more mechanical style. When compared to Old Style typefaces such as Caslon it is evident that Baskerville continued the trend of heavily bracketed serifs. This is noticeable when comparing the ‘H’ of each typeface. The serifs of the italic letterforms remain more true to calligraphy, illustrating the flow from one letter to another. Varying from Old Style typefaces, Baskerville created rounded, open letterform. He also incorporated a greater contrast within stroke weight which is clearly evident when comparing the ‘C’ and the ‘W’ glyphs of each typeface.
o 2
Baskerville bold italic 300pt, gray Baskerville italic 300 pt, navy Adobe Caslon Pro italic 300pt, gray
The stress shifted from the slant of Old Style to almost vertical as seen when comparing the ‘o’. Possibly the most unique feature of the typeface is the open loop of the ‘g’ which is unlike any other traditional typeface. The ‘swash-like’ tail of the ‘Q‘ that sweeps below the letter following it is also an identifying feature of Baskerville. Furthermore, the tail of the letterform is connected by only a hairline. This underscores the contrast in weight that Baskerville utilized. The lowercase ‘a’ has a large counter but the cross bar of the ‘e’ is quite high creating a small er counter. Similarly, there is a high cross bar on the ‘A’. The tail of the ‘j’ curves low creating a descender while the capital ‘C’ has serifs on both the top and bottom terminal. This is also a feature of the original Caslon typeface. The ‘E’ features a longer lower arm and the central junction of the ‘W’ does not have a serif. The spur of the ‘G’ is slightly serifed from the concave joint. All of these features together create a light, delicate design which was unique at the time of its creation. Numerals and symbols also differentiate Basker ville from typefaces such as Caslon. The amper sand of Baskerville, for instance, is more narrow and has much more weight contrast than that of Caslon. Baskerville also created lining numerals where Caslon’s typeface includes non–lining numerals. The zero of Baskerville has a more elongated, slim shape with a more extreme weight shift. The terminals of the nu-
Baskerville Old face 300pt
Basker ville | 9 merals vary greatly between the two typefaces, seen especially when comparing the ‘1’ and ‘2’. Another source of criticism was fueled purely by professional jealousy. Within his book, Letters, James Hutchinson recalls a story within which Benjamin Franklin, a supporter and friend of Baskerville, confronts a critic with a specimen of Caslon’s type. Having removed all evidence of Caslon’s name from the specimen, Franklin told the critic that the specimen was one of Bas kerville. The critic proceeded to describe a large quantity of faults within the specimen in cluding disproportion, exclaiming that his ‘eyes were suffering from the strain of reading the text.’ The irony was that this critic published a book using Caslon’s typeface and therefore should have recognized it. Franklin, in his letter to Baskerville recounting the story, sarcastically wrote “You see, this gentleman was a connoisseur.” This story underscores that Baskerville’s designs were not at fault. Instead, Baskerville’s typeface was perceived badly because he was attempting to trump Caslon. There is controversy surrounding the true expla nation for the poor readability associated with Baskerville’s original specimen. Another source of criticism was fueled by the innovations made by Baskerville in areas other than his typeface. D. B Updike has said, “It is true that the types try the eye. Baskerville’s contemporaries, who also thought so, attributed this to his glossy pa per and dense black ink. Was this the real
fault? The difficulty was, I fancy, that in his type designs the hand of the writingmaster betrayed itself, in making them too even, too perfect, too ‘genteel,’and so they charmed too apparently and artfully – with a kind of finical, sterile refinment”. Despite the aversion to the typeface during the time of its creation, Baskerville made use of it within his books which were very elegant as a result of his extreme attention to detail. In 1757 he printed his first text, a Latin edition of clas sic poetry, Virgil. From there he went on to produce a series of English and Latin classics including Milton’s Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. In 1758, Baskerville gained the oppor tunity to print prayer books and Bibles for Cambridge University Press. His Bible, printed in 1763, has been deemed his masterpiece. The title pages of his books generally had more leading than that of other printers of the time, such as Caslon. His titles, set in all capitals, were given generous letter-spacing further underscoring the openness, and elegance of the pages.
Baskerville & its revivals As technology changed and uses for typefaces increased, the style of Baskerville was replicated on many occasions. From the 1700’s to 1900 there was little activity in reviving Basker ville, but at least eight foundries issued a version of Baskerville during the 20th century. These regenerations varied from being extreme ly close, if not identical to the original, as seen with the Monotype’s version in 1923, to more loosely based on the original typeface such as American Typefounders Company release in 1915. The Fry Baskerville is an inexact replica with greater weight contrast throughout the typeface and a different tail connection for the uppercase ‘Q’. The ‘C’ of the 1983 Berthold Baskerville Book only has a serif on the top ter minal, and is visually heavier than the same letterform of different revivals, while the Mono type design retains the original ‘C’ with a serif on both ends. Monotype, though, has unique cursive strokes within their italic letterforms. Seemingly, the counter space of the lowercase ‘e’ has been adjusted over time to be more consistent with the other letterforms as well.
Zuzanna Licko designed the most recent revival in an effort to challenge the preconceived meth ods of interpreting a classic typeface with mo dern technology. After Licko emigrated to the United States from Czechoslovakia with her family, she studied photography, architecture, and computer programming as well as graphic communications at the University of California at Berkeley. She also met Rudy VanderLans there, who went on to create Emigre magazine soon after. This opened doors for Licko to begin creating typefaces for Emgire’s use of which she created thirty six by 2004. Mrs Eaves was created in 1996 with Fontogra pher, a font editing program, and Licko shaped the forms out of memory after studying many renditions of Baskerville. Working for Emigre Magazine, her decision to revive Baskerville was strongly influenced by the needs of the publication. As they began to print more in-depth articles, and shifted to a smaller page format, they required a more diverse range of appropriate typefaces at the ready. The tech nology available was also improving, allowing Licko to create more detailed forms on a big-
1766 John Fry and William Pine Fry Baskerville
1915 American Type Foundry (ATF)
1923 Lanston Monotype
1910 Stephenson, Blake and Company, Baskerville Old Style
1926 Stempel
1929 Mergenthaler Linotype 1931 Intertype 1936 Deberny et Peignot
1961 Berthold
1978 Linotype, New Baskerville 1982 ITC, New Baskerville designed by Mathew Carter 1983 Berthold, Baskerville Book designed by G端nter Gerhard Lange 1995 Monotype 1996 Emigre, Mrs Eaves
ger computer screen. When asked, in an inter view with Emigre Magazine, why she chose to revive Baskerville, Licko stated “It’s an epic design that I really respect. And, being a transi tional face, it magically achieves the legibility of a very traditional design, without the old style stress of a Garamond, while avoiding the legibility pitfalls of moderns, like Bodoni.”. The name for the typeface, Mrs Eaves, was in spired by John Baskerville’s mistress. After being abandoned by her husband, Sarah Eaves moved into Baskerville’s home with her four children to serve as his housekeeper. Baskerville and Eaves married in 1764 after her husband’s death. Eaves completed work on volumes left un finished upon Baskerville’s death as well. Licko removed the dot following Mrs in order to differentiate the trademark title of the font from the common word “Mrs.” As of 2009, Mrs Eaves was the best selling font of the Emigre Foundry and still selling strong. Licko stated, in an interview conducted by Pascal Béjean, between 2007 and 2009, for Étapes magazine (France), “I’m amazed by its success, and I love seeing it around every corner, on book covers, restaurant menus, everywhere. I’m really happy to see what designers have been able to do with it.”
fi
Basker ville | 13
fi
The typeface varies slightly from the original and from other revivals. Licko’s design does not have as much contrast in weight as the other Baskerville designs. The Mrs Eaves ‘o’ for ex ample has a reduced x-height respective to the cap-height in order to give the lowercase letterforms a wider proportion. This resulted in the ‘o’ of Mrs Eaves having the most circular counter of the revivals. Furthermore, this causes the typeface to appear one point size smaller than the average lowercase text. Licko took advantage of the opportunity to ex pand the typeface with a plethora of ligatures, 213 to be exact. These range from those commonly used, such as the ‘fi’ and ‘oe’, to more ornate variations including ‘sp’ and ‘co’. Described as feminine, Mrs Eaves required a more masculine sans-serif companion. Mr Eaves was created in 2009 based on the proportions of Mrs Eaves yet with design changes. The Mrs Eaves family today includes Mrs Eaves, Mrs Eaves XL Serif, 2009, Mrs Eaves XL Serif Narrow, 2009, Mr Eaves Sans, 2009, Mr Eaves Modern, 2009, Mr Eaves XL Sans, 2010, and Mr Eaves XL Modern, 2010.
Baskerville & its uses Created in the 18th century as a typeface for set ting books, revivals of Baskerville are utilized in a wide variety of places. The typeface pairs well with most sans serif or Old-style typefaces. Clashing typefaces, whose characteristics are too similar with those of Baskerville, include Bodoni, Electra and Caledonia. Rochester Institute of Technology utilizes Bas kerville as their typeface of choice over a wide range of their materials. The university’s official lettermark is set in Mathew Carter’s New Baskerville Bold, from the International Type face Corporation. It is maintained within the brand identity that any supporting text surroun ding the lettermark such as the address block should also be set in this type. This being the case, ITC’s New Baskerville is then seen on everything from stationary to business cards to advertisements which all feature the RIT logo.
Northeastern University similarly uses Baskerville throughout their branding materials.Their wordmark is made up of custom designed letterforms that are based on Baskerville. The university has entitled the type Northeastern Baskerville. Furthermore, ITC New Baskerville is the official font of the university with Helvetica. Within their brand identity, Northeastern University describes ITC New Baskerville as being a “highly legible serif typeface” while urging that it be used for “large amounts of body text or for heads, subheads or captions”. The elegance of Baskerville lends itself to use within brands targeting high society. The Metropolitan Opera, for example, set its identity in Baskerville during its 2005 rebranding. The logo’s of both Kate Spade and Alexander McQueen feature a form of Baskerville as well.
Rochester Insitute of Technology logo
The Kate Spade NewYork Logo
The Better Homes and Gardens Magazine Logo
The Metropolitan Opera logo
Basker ville | 17 Other uses of the typeface include the Better Homes and Gardens Magazine logo type, movie posters such as the American Gangster, t-shirts such as that designed by Aegir of The Ministry of Type for the 2010 dConstruct conference in Brighton, UK, and art work. The poster by Aegir, for example, uses a star shape put into a pattern to create a Baskerville italic ampersand. Mrs Eaves is used for the logo of a brand of wine entitled Root:1 and the logo of a charity known as Local Abounds. Also, the logo of the popular blog site, WordPress, is set in Mrs Eaves Small Caps. Baskerville and its many revivals have proven timeless in the scheme of design. The possible uses are bountiful and will only increase with time. The characteristics of the typeface are both unique and classic lending themselves to legibility and many typeface creations today continue to take cues from John Baskerville and his successes.
bibliography Bringhurst, Robert. The Elements of Typographic Style. USA: Hartley & Marks, 1996. Consuegra, David. American Type Design and Designers. New York: Allworth Press, 2004. Dixon, John. “Revival of The Fittest: Digital Versions of Classical Typefaces.” Baskerville, edited by Phillip Meggs and Roy McKelvey, 42-49. New York: RC Publications, Inc., 2000. Dodd, Robin. From Gutenberg to Opentype: An Illustrated History of Type from the Earliest Letterforms to the Latest Digital Fonts. Vancouver: Hartley and Marks Publishers, 2006. Haley, Allan. ABC’s of Type. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1990. Lupton, Ellen. Thinking With Type. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2010. Zuzana Licko. Zuzana Licko Answers Frequently Asked Questions. By Emigre Magazine. 2000. Zuzana Licko. Eye Magazine (UK). By Rhonda Rubinstein. 2002.
This book was designed by Lauren Gillette. It was printed on an HP Color Laser Jet CP5525 printer. Mrs Eaves and Baskerville were used.
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