Goudy Old Style

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Typeface	Goudy Old Style
Category	Serif
Classifications	Old Style
Designer(s)	Frederic W. Goudy
Foundry	American Type Founders
Date released	1916
Re-issuing foundries	Lanston Type Co. Bitstream Linotype

Goudy Old Style, is an old style serif typefaces originally created by Frederic W. Goudy for American Type Founders (ATF) in 1916. In its original ATF form and the Linotype derivatives, only the standard (roman) and italic weights of Goudy are called Goudy Old Style. In versions sold by other foundries, such as Bitstream, all weights are referred to as Goudy Old Style. Other weights, such as Goudy Bold and Goudy Extra Bold, were based on Goudy Old Style but designed by Morris Fuller Benton.

Suitable for both text and display applications, Goudy Old Style is a graceful, balanced design with a few eccentricities, including the upward-curved ear on the g and the diamond shape of the dots of the i, j, and the points found in the period, colon and exclamation point, and the sharply canted hyphen. The uppercase italic Q has a strong calligraphic quality. Generally classified as a Garalde (sometimes called Aldine) face, certain of its attributes—most notably the gently curved, rounded serifs of certain glyphs—suggest a Venetian influence.

Goudy is also the name of various unrelated typefaces, some designed by Frederic Goudy (such as Goudy Sans and the blackletter Goudy Text) and others merely inspired by his work. Particular care should be taken not to confuse Goudy Old Style with Goudy Modern, a completely different serif typeface also designed by Frederic Goudy in 1916.

[edit] References

Friedl, Frederich, Nicholas Ott and Bernard Stein. Typography: An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Through History. Black Dog & Leventhal: 1998. ISBN 1-57912-023-7.
Meggs, Philip B. and McKelvey, Roy.Revival of the Fittest: Digital Versions of Classic Typefaces. RC Publications: 2000. ISBN 1-883915-08-2.