Caslon Specimen Book by Viktoriya Tsoy

the

type a caslon specimen book

words have never looked so Seductive

CASLON is a gorgeous Old Style Serif typeface designed by William Caslon I in the 18th century. It is a perfect example of timeless design and classical ideals. It has been used for centuries on things like the official Declaration of Independence and more recently on fashion magazines and publications. Caslon is widely appreciated for its stunning collection of ornaments, beautifully crafted Swashed Italics, and over 20 ligatures. Today, Caslon is still one of the most stunning serif typefaces and while being traditional, it holds a very sensual and modern twist.

D e s i g n m u s t s ed u ce, shape, & p e r h a p s more importantly,

evoke an emotional response.

April Greiman

Caslon Caslon Italic Caslon Bold Caslon Bold Italic Caslon 3 Caslon 3 Small Cap Caslon 3 Italic Caslon 540 Caslon 540 Italic Caslon 540 Small Caps Big Caslon Big Caslon Small Cap Adobe Caslon Pro Adobe Caslon Pro Italic Adobe Caslon Pro Semibold Adobe Caslon Pro Semibold Italic Adobe Caslon Pro Bold

THE CREATOR

william Ccaslon i was an engraver, type founder and designer. He was born in 1692 in Cradley, Worchester, England. Caslon heralded a turning point for English typefounding. He started his career engraving government marks on gunlocks. A group of London printers and booksellers asked the young engraver to cut a font of Arabic of English size for a Psalter and a New Testament for Oriental use - it was hoped that the natives of newly-discovered lands would take up Christianity. Soon he was cutting his own font designs. Caslon types were actually modelled on Dutch type but were much more delicate and interesting. He went on to create a large number of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;exoticâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; yet readable typefaces.

THE CASLON FOUNDRY

Founded by William Caslon around 1720, Caslonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s was the leading English typefoundry of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Caslon started business in London as an engraver of gun locks and barrels, and as a bookbinderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tool-cutter. Being thus brought into contact with printers,he was induced to fit up a type foundry, largely through the encouragement of printer William Bowyer. The distinction and legibility of his type secured him the patronage of the leading printers of the day in England and on the continent. It continued under William Caslon II. On his death in 1778 the property was split between his wife and his son, William Caslon III. In 1792 the son sold his share to his mother and his sister-in-law to buy the foundry of their rival, Joseph Jackson, who had just died. The family of the sister-in-law kept the main Caslon foundry running until 1937, when it closed and the designs passed to Stephenson Blake (who back in 1819 had purchased the other Caslon foundry). The original printing of the American Declaration of Independence was set with Caslon type, and derivatives of these typefaces continue to be used as computer fonts.

Caslon

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William Caslon i 1692

1706

1716

William Caslon I born in Cradley, Worcestershire, England.

He begins a seven-year apprenticeship as an engraver with a London harness-maker.

Becomes a selfemployed engraver.

1734

1725

1721

Caslonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first one-page specimen is produced which illustrates 47 of his typefaces.

Caslon sets up his own type foundry.

The Society for Christian Knowledge commissions him to cast Arabic alphabets.

1737

1766

Type foundry moves to Chiswell Street in London, continues to operate for 200 years.

William Caslon I dies in Bethnal Green, England.

1720

1754

1780

william caslon ii

william caslon iii

william caslon iv

William Caslon II was born on 1720 and was a type founder and type designer. In 1742 he joined his fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s company. In 1763 his father and son issue the first English book of type specimens, which includes 56 alphabets by Caslon senior and 27 by his son, designed between 1738 and 1763. In 1766 after the death of his father, Caslon junior runs the family business until 1778.

William Caslon III was born 1754, and worked as a type founder. Caslon III sold his share of the business to his mother and daugther-in-law and used the money to buy the Jackson type foundry. The type foundry remained the property of the Caslon family up until 1795.

William Caslon IV was born in 1780, and was also a type founder. In 1807 Caslon IV takes over the running of the type foundry until 1819, when the foundry is bought by Blake, Garnett & Co. 1837: the type foundry, still under the name of Caslon, becomes the property of the Stephenson, Blake & Co. type foundry in Sheffield.

CHARACTERISTICS

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Adobe Caslon Adobe Caslon is a variant designed by Carol Twombly and based on the Caslonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own specimen pages printed between 1734 and 1770. Small caps, old style figures, swash letters, ligatures, alternate letters, fractions, subscripts and superscripts, and ornaments were included with the Adobe Caslon Expert family. Adobe Caslon Pro incorporates the previous expert letters, adds ordinals, arbitrary fractions, and extends the language coverage to include central European languages. Adobe Caslon is the typeface used for body text in The New Yorker. Adobe Caslon is one of the two official typefaces of the University of Virginia. It uses a modification of Caslon Pro for the University of Virginia logo. Caslon is no longer offered in the retail market.

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CASLON OLD FACE Caslon Old Face is a typeface that appears to be true to those designed by William Caslon himself. Originally Caslon Old Face was the Caslon matrices and type that were property of the H.W. Caslon & Sons foundry. In 1937, the H.W. Caslon & Sons foundry was acquired by Stephenson Blake & Co who thereafter added ‘the Caslon Letter Foundry’ to their name. George Ostrochulski adapted the designs from Stephenson Blake & Co for photocomposition at Mergenthaler Linotype with skill and understanding during the 1950s.

CASLON 471 Caslon 471 was designed by the staff of American Type Founders as their first revival of Caslon. It is based on the Old Style No. 1 typeface used in an 1865 specimen book from the L.J. Johnson foundry in Philadelphia.

CASLON 224 Caslon 224 was designed by Ed Benguiat of ITC, and released in 1983. The result of his efforts is a highly readable typeface, featuring a large x-height, smooth weight transitions, and careful structuring of hairline strokes, offered in four weights each with a matching italic. In lectures, Benguiat has frequently said he chose the number 224 because it was the address of the building where he did most of his design work.

BIG CASLON Big Caslon is a revival based on the three largest sizes of type from the H.W. Caslon & Sons foundry by Matthew Carter of Carter & Cone in 1994. The typeface is intended for use at eighteen point and above. It is bundled with Apple’s OS X system.

CASLON OPENFACE CASLON 540 Caslon 540 was designed by the staff of American Type Founders and released in 1902. The typeface was originally intended for use in advertising and is based on Caslon 471 with shortened descenders. Caslon 540 didn’t have a bold weight.

CASLON 3 A bolder version of Caslon 540, released by American Type Founders in 1905. BitStream sells Caslon 3 under the name of Caslon Bold.

CASLON 641 A heavy set of Caslon 540, released by American Type Founders in 1966.

A decorative openface serif typeface with very high ascenders, designed by Barnhart Brothers and Spindler in 1915, that is only loosely based on the typefaces designed by William Caslon himself.

ITC FOUNDER’S CASLON ITC Founder’s Caslon was digitized by Justin Howes. He used the resources of the St. Bride Printing Library in London to thoroughly research William Caslon and his types. Unlike previous digital revivals, this family closely follows the tradition of building separate typefaces intended for different sizes. This family was released by ITC in December 1998.Also following the original Caslon types, it does not include bold typefaces, but uses old style figures for all numbers.

FOUNDERS CASLON Following the release of ITC Founder’s Caslon, Justin Howes revived the H.W. Caslon & Company name, and released an expanded version of the ITC typefaces under the Founders Caslon name. Caslon Old Face is a typeface with multiple optical sizes, including 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, 22, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 60, 72, 96 points. Each font has small capitals, long esses and swash characters. The 96 point font came in roman only and without small capitals. Caslon Old Face was released in July 2001. However, following the death of Justin Howes, the revived H.W. Caslon & Company went out of business, expanded Founders Caslon is no longer available.

LTC CASLON LTC Caslon is a remastering of the Lanston Type Company’s 14 point size of their revival of Lanston Monotype’s Caslon 337 of 1915 (itself a revival of the original Caslon types). This family include fonts in 2 weights, complementary italics, and long descender typefaces. The character sets are expanded to include fractions, ligatures, swashes (italics only).characters.

WYLD A modern day recreation of Caslon by David Manthey which is intended to exactly match the typeface found in The Practical Surveyor, by Samuel Wyld, published in London in 1725. The typeface contains glyphs for several ligatures commonly used in printing during the early 18th century.

WILLIAMS CASLON TEXT A modern attempt to capture the spirit of Caslon by William Berkson currently used in Boston magazine. Although not aimed at being fully authentic in every respect, the typeface closely follows Caslon’s original specimen sheet in many respects, including varied slopes for the italic letters. The weight is heavier, to compensate for changes in the new printing processes.

FRANKLIN CASLON This 2006 creation by P22 is based on the pages produced by Benjamin Franklin circa 1750.

CASLON ANTIQUE LTC CASLON REMIX The LTC Caslon Remix typeface is a variant of LTC Caslon Pro found in the P22 Records music CD William Caslon Experience, an album by The William Caslon Experience (Nate Butler, Mart Schaefer) remixed by Odiorne. The CD is included with the purchase of the LTC Caslon family.

This decorative serif typeface was originally called Fifteenth Century, but later renamed Caslon Antique. It is not generally considered to be a member of the Caslon family of typefaces, because its design appears unrelated, and the Caslon name was only added retroactively.

CASLON ROMAN

HISTORY

Caslon Roman is a Unicode-based typeface for computer display, developed by George Williams.

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Benjamin Franklin was not only a scientist and one of the founding fathers of the United States of America. He was also a printer and he liked the fonts made by William Caslon so much that he hardly ever used any other typeface.

caslon fonts offer a variety of

ways to visualize words in a unique and intimate way with a set of typography. It allows one to express seriousness and/or professionalism, happiness and sadness, friendship, love, hate, and desire. In some ways this is one of the most emotionally expanded typefaces one can use. With Caslon you have the ability to express anything and everything.

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Caslon Regular Caslon Old Style Figures

Caslon - Regular 48 pt

Pulse

Caslon 540 - Roman 48 pt

Curves

Big Caslon - Small Caps 48 pt

Touch

Caslon - Italic 48 pt

Adobe Caslon Pro - Italic 48 pt

Caslon - Bold 48 pt

Caslon 3 - Italic Oldstyle Figures pt 48 pt

Fantasy Desire Expose Whisper

LIGATURES

Adobe Caslon Pro Italic Swash

Pt 10

Caslon

Pt 12

Caslon

Pt 14

Caslon

Pt 18

Caslon

Pt 24

Caslon

Pt 30

Pt 36

Pt 48

Pt 60

Pt 72

Caslon

LATIN CAPITALS

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william caslon was important not because of the groundbreaking design of his types â&#x20AC;&#x201D;he largely followed the Dutch and French designs of the dayâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; but because of the quality of his punch-cutting and engraving. His letters were attractive and nicely made, echoing the aesthetics evidenced in his training as a gun-barrel engraver. He paid attention to the relationships between letters on the page with a detail and care not seen in Britain at the time.

ORNAMENTS

Caslon is a typeface that is fascinating in it's design aspects - first it was made to be easily legible, wth just enough elegance to add the special touch of beauty and sensuality. It is perfect for both body text and headlines and can give something both a vintage and a modern look. It stood though centuries, and is now one of the most iconic typefaces in existance.

typography needs to be audible. typography needs to be felt. typography needs to be experienced.

Helmut Schmid