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Contents 1 History 2 Characteristics
3 Family 4 Usages 5 Colophon
History illiam Caslon (born 1692, Cradley, Worcestershire, Eng.—died Jan. 23, 1766, Bethnal Green, London), English typefounder who, between 1720 and 1726, designed the typeface that bears his name. His work helped to modernize the book, making it a separate creation rather than a printed imitation of the old hand-produced book. Caslon began his career as an apprentice to an engraver of gunlocks and barrels. In 1716 he opened his own engraving shop in London and soon began to make tools for bookbinders and silver chasers. When his work came to the attention of the printer John Watts, Caslon was given the task of cutting type punches for various presses in London. In 1720 he designed an “English Arabic” typeface used in a psalter and a New Testament. Two years later he cut excellent roman, italic, and Hebrew typefaces for the printer William Bowyer; the roman typeface, which was first used in 1726, later came to be called Caslon. The success of Caslon’s new typefaces in England was almost instantaneous, and, as a result, he received loans and sufficient trade to enable him to set up a complete typefoundry.
From 1720 to 1780, few books were printed in England that did not use type from his foundry. Caslon’s first specimen sheet was issued in 1734 and exhibited his roman and italic types in 14 different sizes. His types eventually spread all over Europe and the American colonies, where one of his fonts was used to print the Declaration of Independence. Caslon’s typefaces combined delicate modeling with a typically Anglo-Saxon vigour. After 1735 Caslon’s eldest son, William (1720–88), joined him and by about 1742 had become a partner. Though the son lacked his father’s great abilities, he maintained the reputation of the firm and, with the aid of his wife, Elizabeth, managed it skillfully. After William’s death in 1788, the original Caslon & Son foundry was divided among his heirs.
Characteristics Concave extended apex
Large oblique serif
Two part tail
Almost vertical serif
No spur, good contrast
Lightly raised serif
ith the rise of hot metal typesetting beginning at the close of the 19th century, existing foundry metal typefaces such as Caslon’s had to be adapted to specific typesetting technology. This was true again with phototypesetting, mostly in the 1960s and 1970s, and then again with digital typesetting technology, mostly since the mid-1980s. As a result of that, and the lack of trademark on the name “Caslon” by itself, there are many typefaces called “Caslon” with some other distinguishing element, which reproduce the original designs in varying degrees of faithfulness. Furthermore, Caslon shares the irregularity characteristic of Dutch Baroque types. 1. Short ascenders and descenders, bracketed serifs, moderately high contrast, robust texture, and moderate modulation of stroke. 2. A has a concave hollow at the apex, the G is without a spur. 3. Caslon’s italics have a rhythmic calligraphic stroke. A, V, and W have an acute slant. 4. Italics p, Q, v, w, and z all have a suggestion of a swash.
Family dobe Caslon has been reissued in OpenType format. This serif typeface family includes Regular, Semibold and Bold weights, each with an italic, and is designed to be used in the smaller type sizes (between six and 14 points) common to the long-form body copy of books and magazines. The full typeface family incorporates expert sets with special characters and ligatures, true small capitals, swash embellishments, ornaments and support for Central European languages. The ends of its letterforms feature the small spurs that mimic the ways ancient stonecutters carved type into public monuments, using strokes suited to their tools and materials. It is classified as transitional since it falls between old-style and modern type, the former with its slight differences in thickness between its thickest and thinnest strokes, the latter with extreme contrast.
Adobe Caslon Bold Adobe Caslon Bold Italic Adobe Caslon Italic Adobe Caslon Regular Adobe Caslon Semibold Adobe Caslon Semibold Italic
Typography Catalog
Usages aslon’s fonts are such a versatile typeface with a friendly, homey quality. While the individual letterforms are not particularly elegant, this font has altogether a pleasing aspect. Superior legibility, beautiful curves and lines with varied weight and tension are all trademarks of any Caslon typeface. As such, Caslon lends itself very well to books, official documents, magazines and journals that require large amounts of reading, because it is a good font for body text.
English roman, a Latin text face of the Caslon stable of typefaces. Restored extract from the specimen sheet below.
Caslon has been revived by a number of people and companies. One of the most popular is Adobe Caslon Pro which is the font used for The New Yorker.”
William Caslon’s 1734 Specimen sheet, some of which is set in the Caslon typeface.
Sample page from the Australian Book Review, set entirely in Adobe Caslon
Editors: Claire Fitzsimmons Authors: Ralph Rugoff Book design: Megumi Nishimura Copy editor: Lindsey Westbrook Director of publications: Erin Lampe Project manager: Meghan Ryan Printer: Westcan Printing Group, Akron, Ohio Distribution: Distributed Arts Publishing Inc., Ohio Š2014 Mary Schiller Myers School of Art, Folk Hall 150 E. Exchange St., Akron, OH 44325-7801 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner without permission. All images are Š the artists, reproduced with the kind permission of the artists and/or their representatives. This book is typeset in Adobe Caslon Pro Italic, a typeface designed by William Caslon. The Adobe Caslon Pro version was released between 1734 and 1770. Adobe Caslon Pro contains capital letters, small caps, old style figures, swash letters, ligatures, alternate letters, symbols, fractions, subscripts and superscripts, and ornaments. It combines the aesthetic and functional qualities that make type highly readable for text publishing needs. The main text of this volume was typeset in 14 point. The titles were set in Adobe Caslon Pro Regular, type set 100 points, also by William Caslon. ISBN 978-0-9802055-1-0
