g Giambattista Bodoni 1740-1813
about bodoni
Giambattista Bodoni was one of the most prolific type designers and considered an arch-romantic. His hundreds of faces embrace considerable variety, and more than 25,000 of his punches are in the Bodoni Museum in Parma.
A twenty-eight year-old Bodoni was asked to take charge of the Stamperia Reale, the official press of Ferdinand, Duke of Parma. Bodoni accepted and became the private printer to the court. He printed official documents and publications desired by the Duke, in addition to projects conceived and initiated by Bodoni. His initial design influence was Fournier le Jeune, whose foundry supplied type and ornaments to the Stamperia Reale after Bodoni took charge. The quality of Bodoni’s design and printing, even though scholarship and proofreading were sometimes lacking, created a growing international reputation. In 1790, the Vatican invited Bodoni to Rome to establish a press for printing the classics there, but the Duke countered with an offer of expanded facility and a privilege of printing for other clients. Bodoni elected to remain in Parma and around 1800, began working on typefaces from which the modern Bodoni is derived. Bodoni lived and worked in Parma until his death in 1813.
A spread of Bodoni’s type work from Il Manuale Tipografico. Published after his death, the book contains 142 sets of Bodoni’s roman and italic typefaces as well as other alphabets and decorative elements.
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origins The Modern Roman style, which is often attributed to Bodoni, departed from the pen-inspired Old Style typefaces and embraced a modern, mathematical precision with elements drawn from the thin lines of copperplate engraving. However, Bodoni was no revolutionary. The Modern Roman style, did not, as many would believe, spring forth as if by magic. While the letters he cut and the books he printed were more refined and of exceptionally higher quality than most of the work originating before or during his lifetime, it would be difficult to classify any of Bodoni’s efforts as fundamentally new. When he was young, the work of John Baskerville served as his ideal; when he opened his first printing office for the Duke of Parma, Bodoni did so with type from Fournier. In later years, the work of his great Parisian competitor, Francois Didot, influenced him dramatically. Bodoni was always, in some manner, dependent on the work of other, bolder contemporaries.
characteristics
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Bodoni created typefaces and typography to impress the eye. His designs were studied efforts meant to be seen as well as read. Few would deny that Bodoni’s typefaces are beautiful; unfortunately, few would say they are also easy to read. By current standards, his designs are, in fact, the antithesis of what an easily readable typeface should be. Had he known this fact, however, Bodoni would probably not have been very upset. His goal was not to create typography to be appreciated by the masses. His books and other printing exercises were large regal efforts meant to be looked upon and appreciated as works of art, rather than as mere pieces of communication. Beatrice Warde, an eminent typographic historian, in a famous essay, likened the perfect type to a crystal goblet. Her perfect type is transparent, or invisible, to the reader and allows the content to be enjoyed without coloration or distraction. Bodoni’s type is anything but a “crystal goblet.” Its hairline serifs, strong thickand-thin stroke contrast, and abrupt weight changes cloud the reading process. Bodoni is no quiet servant to the
communication process; it is a design that demands attention. If used carefully, Bodoni type can create typography that is exceptionally beautiful, even elegant, but not particularly easy to read. If used poorly, Bodoni’s extreme weight contrast and vertical stress can cause a typographic effect, “dazzling,” which is visually uninviting and exceptionally disruptive to the reading process.
type anatomy
In order to talk about traits specific to Bodoni’s typeface, we’ll introduce some general typographic terms. Serif: “Feet” or non-structural details at the ends of some strokes. Axis: An imaginary line drawn from top to bottom of a character bisecting the upper and lower strokes is the axis. Bowl: A curved stroke that completely encloses a space. Hairline: The thin strokes of a serif typeface. X-height: The height of the main body of a lowercase letter. Baseline: The invisible line on which the letters of a font sit. Contrast: The difference between the thick and thin strokes within a letter.
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axis
hairline
x-height
Anatomy serif
bowl
baseline
Bo
thin, hairline serif
characteristics Bodoni is a serif font with high contrast, meaning it has “feet�, or lines, at the bottom of many of the letters and a large difference in width between the thick and thin strokes of the letter. To the right is a comparison with Helvetica, a sans-serif font with low contrast. Helvetica has relatively uniform stroke width in the letter and no serifs. Bodoni features mostly bracketed serifs, which means the serifs meet the stem at a right angle with no curve. Bodoni’s axis is verical and the x-height is shorter than that of many other fonts.
AA
ooxx Bodoni MT serif, high contrast
Helvetica sans-serif, low contrast
Bodoni MT unbracketed serif
Baskerville MT bracketed serif
odoni Bodoni MT vertical stress
Lyon Text angled stress
Bodoni MT 120 pt lower x-height
unbracketed serif
vertical axis
high thick and thin contrast
rectangular serif
Didot 120 pt higher x-height
VVV baskerville 1757
didot 1784–1811
bodoni 1798
comparisons In creating his typefaces, Bodoni took inspiration from those of Baskerville and Didot’s. John Baskerville designed his namesake typeface in 1757. It is considered a Transitional Style typeface – one that marks the change from the Old Style of calligraphic, pen stroke-inspired typefaces, to the Modern precise, mathematical typefaces of Bodoni and Didot. Baskerville’s typefaces departed from their predecessors by emphasizing high contrast between thick and thin strokes and more vertical, condensed upper case letters, characteristics that Bodoni and Didot later take to further extremes. Baskerville still maintains the bracketed serifs, whereas Bodoni has unbracketed, rectangular serifs.
bodoni turn wheel to view comparisons
baskerville 7 7
bodoni didot 8 8
comparisons Despite influences from his contemporaries, Bodoni was not a copyist. A comparison of his type to Didot’s two designs that on the surface may appear virtually identical is a perfect example. There are distinct similarities in their work, and Bodoni surely studied Didot’s designs very carefully, but a close examination reveals that Bodoni’s weight transitions are more gradual and his serifs still maintain a slight degree of bracketing. There is even hint of “old style” in Bodoni’s work. He followed Didot’s lead, carefully evaluating the designs of his great competitor, consciously remaining, however, always just slightly behind the radical modernism of his contemporary. Perhaps this explains to some degree the longevity of Bodoni’s type designs. They were radical enough to be considered new and different (to establish for Bodoni an important and influential place in current typographic circles), but not so different that they became the 18th-century versions of fad designs.
contemporary uses Bodoni’s high contrast and elegant forms make it a popular choice for fashion labels, but it’s also found in a variety of other designs, from posters for musicals to logos for grunge bands. .
Armani Exchange logo
Nirvana logo
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Poster for the musical “Mamma Mia!” Elizabeth Arden logo
Cover for Lady Gaga’s album Fame
Calvin Klein logo
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bibg ilao yr bibliography
“Anatomy of Type: Axis.” Typography Deconstructed. 38pages, LLC, n.d. Web. 7 Apr. 2015.
Bodoni, Giovanni Battista, and Stephan Füssel. Manual of Typography. Köln: Taschen, 2010. Print.
“The Birth of the Legendary Typeface.” Taschen. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.
“Bodoni: The History of Being Awesome.” Ifoundmedinosaurs. N.p., 24 Nov. 2011. Web. 13 Apr. 2015. “Differences - Bodoni and Baskerville.” Identifont. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. “Differences - Bodoni and Didot.” Identifont. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. “Font Designer – Giambattista Bodoni.”
Giambattista Bodoni. Linotype, n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2015. “Giambattista Bodoni | Biography - Italian Printer.” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Ed. Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2015. “Giambattista Bodoni.” Giambattista Bodoni. Art Directory, n.d. Web. 7 Apr. 2015. “Learn: : Anatomy of a Typeface.” Typedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Apr. 2015. Olocco, Riccardo. “A Compulsive Tribute to Giambattista Bodoni — I Love Typography.” I Love Typography RSS. N.p., 14 Mar. 2013. Web. 7 Apr. 2015. Rafici, N. “Bodoni Gills Sans.” (n.d.): n. pag. 12 Dec. 2010. Web. 7 Apr. 2015.
colophon This book on Bodoni was created by Sherry Xiao for Typography I in the Spring of 2015.