O BODONI
The king of typographers
&
the typographer of kings
GIAMBATTISTA BODONI
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Contents Giambattista Bodoni Transition to Modern type Classification Identifying features Available variants Recast and Revival Comparison Application Acknowledgements Bibliography
GIAMBATTISTA BODONI Giambattista Bodoni, born on February 16, 1740 in Saluzzo, was a typesetter, printer, engraver and designer in Parma, Italy. He was of extremely high repute and remembered for designing a family of different typefaces called Bodoni, in 1798. Bodoni came from a print making background, his father and grandfather both being in that trade. He worked for a time as an apprentice in the Vatican’s Propaganda Fide printing house in Rome. There, it was said he impressed his superiors so much with his eagerness to learn, studiousness in mastery of ancient languages and types, and energy of effort, that he was allowed to place his own name on his first books, a Coptic Missal and a version of the Tibetan alphabet. With Baskerville in England and the Didot family in France, Bodoni was a leader in originating pseudo-classical typefaces. After recovering from a long battle with malaria, Bodoni was hired by the Duke Ferdinand of Bourbon-Parma to organize a printing house in Parma, to be one of the great houses of Italy, called la Stamperia Reale. Eventually his success was such that he was permitted to open a printing house under his own name, Officina Bodoni.
He created over 140 roman fonts, a corresponding number of italic designs, more than 115 titling and script fonts, a large number of ornaments and several non- Latin scripts. Much of the strength and beauty of Bodoni’s printing is a result of his ability to use absolutely the right design for any given application. Bodoni’s typefaces and typography were studied efforts meant to be seen as well as read. His books, royal announcements and pamphlets were large, regal efforts meant to be looked upon and appreciated as works of art, rather than mere pieces of communication. The typography Bodoni produced is still regarded as some of the most refined and structured printing ever produced. When he was younger, after a short apprenticeship, Bodoni immediately became the director of the royal press belonging to the Duke of Parma. A few years later, when Napoleon drove the Austrian governors out of Italy, Bodoni was able to continue his work – except under French imperial patronage.
Bodoni once confided to a friend that he agonized for more than six months and produced thousands of trial proofs in the process of choosing just the right type for the title page in one of his books.
TRANSITION TO MODERN TYPE Baroque and rococo aesthetic trends, use of the pointed-pen for writing, and steel engraving techniques effected a gradual shift in typographic style. Contrast between thick and thin strokes increased. Tilted stressing transformed into vertical stressing; full rounds were compressed. Blunt bracketed serifs grew sharp and delicate until they were fine straight lines. Detail became clean and precise. Transitional roman types combined the classical features of lettera antiqua with the vertical stressing and higher contrast between thick and thin strokes characteristic of the true modern romans to come.
Johann Michael Fleischmann (1701–1768), born in Nürnberg and trained as a punchcutter, found employment with Dutch type founders in Holland and settled there c. 1728. At the Enschedé foundry in Haarlem he cut punches for a large amount of material. Some time after 1743 he produced a distinguished roman design—related to the preceding transitional types but departing from them. It prefigured modern romans with sparse transaxial modeling joining the vertical stressing to hairline thins, and ball-ends. Fleischman’s capitals were a new variety; an even-width scheme, compressed rounds, all-vertical stressing, and triangular beak ends of E F L T and Z, all characteristics prefiguring the “classical” moderns of Bodoni and Didot.
Original metal typeface of Bodoni used in letterpress.
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CLASSIFICATION
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Bodoni was foremost in progressing from the Rococo artistic movement to the new classical style. He achieved an unprecedented level of technical refinement, allowing him to faithfully reproduce letter-forms with very thin “hairlines”, standing in sharp contrast to the thicker lines constituting the main stems of the characters. It is now classified as Didone modern, under the Vox-ATypl system., and is characterized by: • Hairline serifs without brackets. • Vertical orientation of weight axes. (The vertical parts of letters are thick.) • Strong contrast between thick and thin lines. (Horizontal parts of letters are thin in comparison to the vertical parts.) • An unornamented, “modern” appearance.
IDENTIFYING FEATURES While Bodoni is a typeface of hairline serifs, some characters retain a mildly bracketed serif, as shown with A. A stark identifying feature of Bodoni is its Q, which has a centrally aligned tail that swerves to the right quite elegantly creating a right angle. Seen in some typefaces, Bodoni possesses a crossed W at the crotch, as shown. As Bodoni is classified under Didone modern, all the axes’ are vertical, as seen in the O. The Bodoni J is rather unique for its quirky hook followed by a ball terminal in both its lower and upper case form. The tail of the R is straight, and does not have a long extension. Variations of Bodoni R are found which posses a ball terminal at the end of the tail.
A W
Q
O J R
a e k f
g w t c
The lower case ‘a’ is double storeyed, and the loop of the bowl hits the stem at an almost straight right angle. The ear of the ‘g’ has a ball terminal, and the middle link of character is condensed as compared to other typefaces. The ‘e’ posses a clear eye, a hairline finial and a defined bowl. The lower case ‘w’, unlike the uppercase, does not cross over, but overlaps instead. Bodoni as a typeface is characteristic of its spur on the ascender, as seen in ‘k’. The lower stroke of the ‘k’ does is not attached to the stem, but to the upper stroke. The ‘t’ bears a distinctive spur that curves upwards. The ‘f’ too has a ball terminal, keeping with the trend of the Bodoni typeface. The unusual ‘c’ of Bodoni is not circular in shape as a whole, unlike the ‘e’ that would fit perfectly into ‘o’.
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AVAILABLE VARIANTS
Bodoni Regular Bodoni Italic Bodoni Book Bodoni Book Italic Bodoni Roman Bodoni Bold Bodoni Bold Italic Bodoni Poster Bodoni Poster Italic Bodoni Bold Compressed Bodoni Poster Compressed
Bauer Bodoni Bauer Bodoni Italic Bauer Bodoni Bold Bauer Bodoni Bold Italic Bauer Bodoni Bold Condensed Bauer Bodoni Black
Bauer Bodoni Black Italic
Bauer Bodoni Black Condensed
RECAST AND REVIVAL The first modern revival of Bodoni’s work was drawn for the American Type Founders Company in 1910 and was one of Morris Fuller Benton’s first designs as the company’s director of typographic development. Benton tried to choose the best qualities from several examples of books printed by Bodoni. Benton’s design was an instant success and it served as the foundation for virtually every new Bodoni to follow for more than 80 years. Linotype produced an interpretation of the ATF design in 1914 (Poster Bodoni /Ultra), followed in the 1920s and 30s by Monotype, Haas, Stempel and Berthold. ITC Bodoni is one of the most carefully researched and accurate interpretations of Bodoni’s typefaces ever attempted. The process involved two trips to Parma, Italy, and hours of carefully designing fonts using one of the original copies of Bodoni’s 1818 ‘Manuale Tipografico’ (a collection of Bodoni’s type-design work published posthumously by his widow in 1818), as a benchmark for accuracy.
These designs were either direct copies or close interpretations of Bodoni’s work. The only exceptions to the lineage were the Bauer BodoniTM design, released in 1926. Bauer Bodoni was originally released in 1926 from the Bauer Type Foundry in Frankfurt. It was designed by Heinrich Jost, who was the artistic director of the foundry from 1923 until 1948, and punch-cut by Louis Hoell. The forms are closely related to the original Bodoni typefaces, and are considered to be more delicate and graceful than many other Bodoni interpretations. Long admired by typographers as the crème de la crème of available Bodoni display types, this version looks especially fine at large sizes and will make a stately presence in any sumptuous magazine, lavish book, or dignified website.
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Aa Aa Aa Aa
Bb Bb Bb Bb
Gg Gg Gg Gg
Bodoni Baskerville Didot Bauer Bodoni
COMPARISON The roman types of Francois Ambroise Didot and son Firmin Didot closely resemble the work of Bodoni, and opinion is divided over whether the Didots or Bodoni originated the first modern romans. At any rate the Didots’ mathematical precision and vanishing of rococo design reflected the “enlightenment” of post-revolution France under Napoleon. Bodoni also produced an italic very close to Baskerville’s, and a French cursive script type falling in between italic type and joined scripts. This similarities between Bodoni and Baskerville are rather unnoticeable at first glance. On closer examination however, there are distinct differences between the two, such as the serifs and the overhang. Didot, the typeface that Bodoni is said to have drawn most inspiration from, is almost identical in its characteristics such as hairline serifs, thick and thin strokes as well as the counter-space. Bauer Bodoni, a direct interpretation of Bodoni, retains all the main characteristics of the original, however the contrast between the strokes is much more evident, and this typeface is preferred for digital usage between the two.
DIFFERENCES
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TODID
g
g BODONI
Q
APPLICATIONS
WHEN NOT TO USE BODONI Bodoni as a typeface has a variety of variants in terms of weight and posture. Bodoni regular or Bodoni Roman is most commonly seen when Bodoni is represented. However, as Bodoni is essentially a headline and statement font, its poster version is most widely used and customized by either being compressed or exaggerated. Bodoni is generally not used as body text, because the contrast of the thick and thin strokes of Bodoni make it difficult to read at a small point size and in a paragraph. This phenomenon is called dazzle, and occurs with all typefaces that have a stark contrast between stroke weight and are accompanied by hairline serifs.
This modern typeface comes in many versions featuring bracketed, fine serifs against thick vertical lines which is used in many different materials from books, posters, fashion magazines, logos, and even restaurant menus. It’s used best in displays and posters because of its extreme contrast. Bodoni has a shimmer called “dazzle” which is caused by an optical effect from its thick vertical lines. It is an old typeface but it is still trendy in its sparkling, cool elegance and its strong, bold appearance. The characters have very high contrast and they’re not appealing to read when laserprinted at normal text sizes. Bodoni is often used at large sizes on the covers of fashion magaz ines. That’s a good place for you to admire it.
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Acknowledgements I would like to thank our Typography course guide and amazing teacher Tarun Deep Girdher, for guiding us through this long drawn and extremely intensive process of creating our first booklet. Not only did we learn terms and facts about graphic design that were not too clear to us before, but also got an opportunity to completely explore a typeface to a point where we can now identify it almost anywhere at any time! We also were given this rare chance to explore our own style and incorporate our own personality into our first ever booklet! I would also like to thank Mahendra Bhai for his immense patience and guidance in the process of not only teaching us the basics of Adobe Indesign, without which we would have fumbled mercilessly through this course, but taking the time to help us during the printing process as well. I would also like to thank Siddharta Tripati for being so understanding through our illustration course and giving us the time to work on Typo! It was truly much needed, and we are grateful. Lastly, I thank my parents for being my parents, my fellow batch-mates for their constant feedback and reassurance without which this would not have been completed, and my seniors for their very “expert� advice!
Thank you.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Websites http://www.itcfonts.com http://www.behance.net http://www.slideshare.net/mlepapp/bodoni-guidebook http://www.quayjournal.org/2_2/bodoni.htm http://www.sitepoint.com/the-modern-typeface http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodoni http://www.twopoints.net ttp://www.linotype.com http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/be_bold_with_bodoni http://jordanccarlson.com/INDIA-REPORT-book Books I Love Bodoni by, Volume 3, Edited and Designed by Twopoints.net
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Naomi Kundu GDPD Graphic Design Semester 3, 2012-13 Typography Guide: Tarun Deep Girdher