Garamond
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Typeface | Garamond |
|---|---|
| Category | Serif |
| Classifications | Old style serif |
| Designer(s) | Claude Garamond Jean Jannon |
| Shown here | Stempel Garamond |
Garamond is the name given to a group of old style serif typefaces named for the punch-cutter Claude Garamond (c. 1480-1561). A majority of the typefaces named Garamond are more closely related to the work of a later punch-cutter Jean Jannon. A direct relationship between Garamond’s letterforms and contemporary type can be found in the Roman versions of the typefaces Sabon, Granjon, Stempel Garamond, and Adobe Garamond.
Garamond’s letterforms convey a sense of fluidity and consistency. Some unique characteristics in his letters are the small bowl of the a and the small eye of the e. Long extenders and top serifs have a downward slope.
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[edit] History
Garamond came to prominence in the 1540s, first for a Greek typeface he was commissioned to create for the French king Francis I, to be used in a series of books by Robert Estienne. The French court later adopted Garamond's Roman types for their printing and the typeface influenced type across France and Western Europe. Garamond had likely seen Venetian old style types from the printing shops of Aldus Manutius. Garamond based much of the design of his lowercase on the handwriting of Angelo Vergecio, librarian to Francis I. The italics of most contemporary versions are based on the italics of Garamond’s assistant Robert Grandjon.
The only complete set of the original Garamond dies and matrices can be found at the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp, Belgium.
Contemporary digital versions of Garamond include Adobe Garamond, Monotype Garamond, Simoncini Garamond, and Stempel Garamond. The typefaces Grandjon and Sabon (designed by Jan Tschichold) are also classified as Garamond revivals. A version called ITC Garamond, designed by Tony Stan (1917–1988) was released in 1977. The design of ITC Garamond, more than any other digital versions, takes great liberty with Garamond's original design by following a formulary associated with the International Typeface Corporation (ITC), that being an exaggerated increase in the x-height, and a wide range of weights from light to ultra bold, and a condensed width also in weights from light to ultra bold.
[edit] Contemporary use of Garamond types
[edit] Apple Garamond
A variation on the Garamond typeface was adopted by Apple in 1984 upon the release of the Macintosh. For branding and marketing the new Macintosh family of products, Apple's designers used the ITC Garamond Light and Book weights and digitally condensed them twenty percent. The result was not as compressed as ITC Garamond Light Condensed or ITC Garamond Book Condensed. Not being a multiple master font, stroke contrast in some characters was too light, and some of the interior counters appeared awkward. To address these problems, Apple commissioned ITC and Bitstream to develop a variant for their proprietary use that was similar in width and feeling, but addressed the digitally condensed version's shortcomings. Designers at Bitstream produced a unique digital variant, condensed approximately twenty percent, and worked with Apple to make the face more distinct. Following this, Chuck Rowe hinted the TrueTypes. The fonts delivered to Apple were known as Apple Garamond.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ ITC Garamond Font Family. MyFonts.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-19.
- Carter, Rob; Ben Day, Philip Meggs. Typographic Design: Form and Communication, Second Edition. Van Nostrand Reinhold, Inc: 1993. ISBN 0-442-00759-0.
- Lawson, Alexander S., Anatomy of a Typeface. Godine: 1990. ISBN 978-0879233334.
- Updike, Daniel Berkeley. Printing Types Their History, Forms and Use. Dover Publications, Inc: 1937, 1980. ISBN 0-486-23929-2.
[edit] External links
- jGaramond: Free Garamond-based TrueType font (deprecated by the author)
- Garamond v Garamond | Physiology of a typeface
