Origin of baskerville typeface series#
Since the digital revolution, the word ‘font' has been interchangeable with the word ‘typeface’ but if we’re being pedantic, that term more accurately means ‘font family’-a series of fonts with a similar design. This harks back to those days when analogue printing was all the rage. In this context, we’re talking physical words. We use them every time we press our fingers on the keyboard, but when and how did they first come into existence? If you’re sitting there daydreaming right now, asking yourself these very questions, then this brief history of fonts is just for you.In addition to the history of fonts, we’ll also reveal why they are a big deal for your own online store.īefore we take a trip back to the past, we need to understand and differentiate some terminology: What is a font?Ī font is a typesetting-text that is a particular size, weight, and style. Top The content on this page is developed from original copy from Wikipedia and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, meaning you’re allowed to copy, distribute and transmit the work as long as it is attributed to the original authors.We’re all familiar with what a font is, at least, we think we are. The uppercase C has serifs at top and bottom there is no serif at the apex of the central junction in uppercase W and the uppercase G has a sharp spur suggesting a vestigial serif. Both the roman and italic uppercase Q have a flowing swashlike tail. Identifying characters, similar to Baskerville’s types, are the lowercase g with its open lower counter and swashlike ear. Like Baskerville, Mrs Eaves, cut by Zuzana Licko of Émigré, has a near vertical stress, departing from the Old Style model. Mrs Eaves is a revival of the types of English printer and punchcutter John Baskerville, and is related to contemporary Baskerville typefaces. Eaves moved in with him as a live-in housekeeper, eventually becoming his wife after the death of her first husband, Mr. As Baskerville was setting up his printing and type business, Mrs. Mrs Eaves is named after Sarah Eaves, the woman who became John Baskerville’s wife. Baskerville represents the peak of Transitional type face design and bridges the gap between Old Style and Modern type design.įoundries that offer versions of Baskerville: Émigré released a popular revival of the typeface in 1996 called Mrs Eaves, named for Baskerville’s wife, Sarah Eaves. Since the 1920s, however, numerous revivals of Baskerville have been released by Linotype, Monotype, and other type foundries. These changes created a greater consistency in size and form.īaskerville’s work was criticized by jealous competitors and soon fell out of favour. The curved strokes are more circular in shape, and the characters became more regular. He increased the contrast between thick and thin strokes, making the serifs sharper and more tapered, and shifted the axis of rounded letters to a more vertical position. The typeface is the result of Baskerville’s intent to improve upon the types of William Caslon.
John Baskerville, preface to Milton, 1758 (Anatomy of a Typeface) The Typefaceīaskerville is a Transitional serif typeface designed by John Baskerville in 1757, positioned between the Old Style typefaces of William Caslon, and the modern styles of Giambattista Bodoni and Firmin Didot. I formed to myself ideas of greater accuracy than had yet appeared, and had endeavoured to produce a set of types according to what I conceived to be their true proportion.”
“Having been an early admirer of the beauty of letters, I became insensibly desirous of contributing to the perfection of them. He also pioneered a completely new style of typography, adding wide margins and generous leading to improve legibility. He developed a technique which produced a smoother whiter paper which showcased his strong black type. His typefaces were greatly admired by Benjamin Franklin, a printer and fellow member of the Royal Society of Arts, who took the designs back to the newly-created United States, where they were adopted for most federal government publishing.īaskerville was responsible for numerous innovations in printing, paper and ink production. Baskerville printed works for the University of Cambridge and, although an atheist, printed a splendid folio bible in 1763. The Manīaskerville was born in the village of Wolverley, near Kidderminster in Worcestershire, and worked as a printer in Birmingham. John Baskerville (1706–1775) was an English businessman whose entrepreneurial attentions included japanning and papier-mâché he is, however, best remembered as a typographer and printer, not least for the design of the eponymous typeface which, to this very day, bears his name. John Baskerville John Baskerville Letter Founder & Master Printer
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