a Life of a Typeface; the Story of Garmond
Nick Petranic
a life of a typeface the story of garamond Nick Petranic
Typographic Design Fall 2012
For us to live and die properly, things have to named properly. Let us Recelaim our words.
-John Berger
Copyright Š Nick Petranic, 2012 First and only edition.
An Introduction
This story is about Claude Garmond and the mark he left on the world of Typography. As well as the many verisons of the typeface we have all come to love. Garmond was created at the dawn of the printing revalution. And it is still used today. Garamond has made us think differently about what makes and breaks a typeface.
Nick Petranic
A man named Claude Garamond
The types that currently bear the name of the great sixteenth century French punch cutter Claude Garamond have been in popular demand for about seventy years and are thus available from a variety of sources including foundries and composing machine manufactures. These many versions do not always have the same characteristics, a disconcerting factor that interferes with their ready identification. The Garamond types have a rich past, steaming as they do from the most influential era if French typography, the 1500s. New interpretations of the historic source continue to appear from time to time, and though these maybe confusing to younger
typographers, they do attest to the universality of the French old-style and offer a challenge in the pursuit of their origin. During the first century of the printer’s craft, each print office was more or less independent, there being practically no outside source for supplies other than paper. In order to secure a supply of type, it was necessary for the master printer to hire a punch maker and a typecaster. Punchcutting, along with typecasting, was a skill that required a good deal of training and experience. There never seemed to be an adequate number of such craftsman to keep printers happy until the establishment of type founding as a completely separate craft, in the 1500s.
Garamond type used in The Anatomy of Vesalius by J. Oporinus, Basle, 1543
Into this printing scene entered Claude Garamond, who had been born about 1500, the exact date being uncertain, as are the farts of his early years. It was probable that he was apprenticed to the punchcutter Antoine Augereau, from whom he learned the craft that was to establish he reputation in the twentieth century. Garamond apparently then work with other punchcutters before embarking on an independent career. It was probably in the late 1520s that Garamond was approached by the Parisian scholar-printer Robert Estienne to cut a series of new roman types. Estienne was continuing the press found by his father, Henri. He was turning it into one of the establishments that helped make the era as noteworthy in the history of typography.
Garamond’s roman first appeared in Paraphrasis in Elegantiarum Libros Laurentii Vallaa, by Erasmus, printed by Estienne in 1530. That year Estienne produced several other books with Garamonds type. The first complete showing of the types came in 1531. Typographic scholar have long debated the design origins of Garamond’s types, but there is is general agreement now that they derive from the types cut from Aldus Manutius in Venice by Fancesco Griffo. Garamond had revieced a book with the typeface known as Bembo from Geoffroy Troy, the first French imprimatur du roi (royal printer) and a notable force in the aesthetic development of the printed book. There is no doubt, however that this was the inspiration for the French copies. In later romans, Garamond frequently departed from he earlier copy and defined the type to better reflect his own artistic concepts. One particular such letter is capital M, which in early models lacked the serif at the top right of the stem.
g Bembo 120 pt.
Bembo 120 pt.
Bembo 120 pt.
g Stempel Garamond 120 pt.
f p
f p
Stempel Garamond 120 pt.
Stempel Garamond 120 pt.
What Garamond left behind Upon Garamond’s death 1561 is punches were sold, a principal purchaser being Christopher Plantin who’s printing office in Antwerp was to become the largest and finest in Europe before the end of the century. This establishment still exists as the Plantin-Moretus Muesum, where during the past 30 years typographic scholars have cataloged the thousands of punches in its possession many of these are now attributed to Claude Garamond. The Garamond punches also found their way to typefoundaries in being established in the 16th century. In 1592 the Frankfurt foundry of Egenolff-Berner issued a broadsides specimen that has since become an important source of information concerning type of the era, and in it are several fonts ascribed to Garamond. There is some doubt whether these punches were acquired directly from Garamond’s widow or were brought to Frankfurt from Antwerp by punchcutter Jacob Sabon.
Sabon, upon death of the printer Christian Egenolff in 1555, had became associated with Egenolff ’s widow in the maintenance of the type foundry that was part of the printing office. Having later worked with Christopher Plantin at Antwerp, Sabon might well have helped in the subsequent acquisition of Garamond punches from Plantin by the Frankfurt foundry, of which you have become the owner by virtue of his marriage to Christians Egenolff ’s grand daughter. Upon Sabons death in 1580, his widow married Konrad Berner, the foundery then being styled EgenolffBerner.The Egenolff-Berner casting established the Garamond designs as a principal roman types use by European printers during the next century. It is the 1592 specimen, which also contains the italics designed by Robert Granjon, that served as the source of several of the current revivals of the Garamond types.
Broadside specimen shee of Egenolff- Berner foundry,Franfurt, 1592
Specimen of Jean Jannon, Sedan, 1621
Specimen of ATF Garamond, completed 1917
Garamond’s idendity crisis Another important derivation of the present day Garamonds is the type that was cut by French printer Jean Jannon and first shown the specimen sheet dated 1621. Jannon, who was printer to Protestant Academy at Sedan, suffer the misfortune of having this typefounding materials confiscated by the king’s forces at the instigation of Cardinal Richelieu. This punches were later placed under the care of in Imprimerie Royale- the royal printing office- which have been established by Richelieu in 1640(and still exists as France’s national printing office). The first use of these Jannon types was in the 1642 production of the Cardinal’s memoirs. The style represented by the gym and designs lost favor, and this types were ignored for about 200 years. When they were ‘discovered’ in the vaults of the French national printing office, in 1825, they were attributed, not to their designer,who had long been forgotten, but to Claude Garamond.
The use of ‘Garamond’ in publications call attention once again to French typography of the 16th century. Here in in the United States in the early 1900s, the American Type Founders Company looking to continue that success that had enjoyed with the revivals of the Bodoni and Cloister Old Style, turned it’s attention to that period. The foundry was of course fortunate to have a its lie librarian and the typographic historian Henry Louis Bullen, and ATF library was the best of its kind in the United States.With Bullen’s encouragement, Morris Benson commenced a redrawing of Garamond. The foundry was also fortunate to retain an advisor the typographic designer T.M. Cleland,who lent invaluable assistance to the project. The model selected was the Jannon group of types. But it was not till several years later after the Garamond revival was well underway that Beatrice Warde( a former assistant to Bullen at the ATF library) began her researches into the history of Garamond types. She discovered in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris an unknown copy of the Jannon specimen book of 1621, and published her surprising findings and 1927, under the pseudonym Paul Beaujon. Jannon thus finally received credit for his designs.
When ATF Garamond was completed, and 1917, it’s at the standard for an international Garamond revival, becoming a hallmark design that has since influenced numerous adaptations all worth noting carefully. Within a decade all the composing-machine manufacturers have produced copies, burying their interpretations according to the model selected.
1920 Frederic Goudy became art director of the Landston Monotype Machine Company, for the first time under this new responsibility he turned to his own conception of the Garamond design. He elected to follow the Jannon type, although his interpretations differed in many respects from that of ATF. It is call Garamont spelling that appears in several historical accounts of French printing. Goudy later wrote that his delineation was ‘not the result of inspiration or of the genius on my part, but was merely the result of an attempt to reproduce as nearly as possible the form and spirit of the Garamond letter.’
A man who would letterspace lower case would steal sheep. -Frederic Goudy
Frederic W. Goudy was a prolific American type designer whose typefaces include Copperplate Gothic, Kennerly, and Goudy Old Style. He also designed, in 1938, University of California Oldstyle, for the sole proprietary use of the University of California Press. The Lanston Monotype Company released a version of this typeface as Californian for wider distribution in 1956, while ITC created a digital version, called ITC Berkeley, in 1983.
Mergenthaler Linotype company in 1925 produced a Garamond closely allied to the Stempel cutting but was somewhat heavier than not quite so graceful. A little later the firm felt economically obliged to issue a type identical to ATF standard Garamond, calling a copy Garamond No. 3. the firms business sense prove the cute, as this type soon became the most widely use of all Garamonds in the United States. In 1930 R. Hunter Middletown design for the Ludlow Typograph Company and Garamond also based on the 1592 specimen. Another individualized interpretation, like Goudy’s, this is the lightest in weight of all the Garamond’s. The distinguished typographer Bruce Rogers greatly admired Miltons design; he told this writer that he believed it could be one of the best of modern the modern cuttings of Garamond. Rogers used it in the addition of Gulliver’s Travels that he designed for the Limited Editions Club in 1950.
Where Garamond Lives today
Garamond is used by many company still. From Dr. Suess books, to logotypes for textile companies.Harry Potter books to Apple ads.Whether we like it or not garamond is here to stay.
Colophon Headlines are set in Garamond Premier Pro Medium Italic Display. Paragraphs are set in Garamond Premier Pro. Captions are set in Garamond Premier Pro Caption. Quotes are set in Garamond Premier Pro Italic Caption