| Category | Serif |
|---|---|
| Classification | Transitional serif |
| Designer(s) | William Addison Dwiggins |
| Foundry | Mergenthaler Linotype Company |
| Date released | 1938 |
| Design based on | Scotch Roman + Bulmer |
| Also known as | Cornelia |
Caledonia is a transitional serif typeface designed by William Addison Dwiggins in 1938 for the Mergenthaler Linotype Company.
Dwiggins chose the name Caledonia, the Roman name for Scotland, to express the face's basis on the early nineteenth century Scotch Roman typeface however, though Dwiggins began with the thought of copying the classical Scotch Romans, eventually he drew more inspiration from the Bulmer design of William Martin.[1] The face has a more vertical stress than an old style garalde faces, with mostly unbracketed horizontal serifs. The G is open and the R has a curved tail. the t is unbracketed. Italic characters p and q have no foot serif. The character set, as drawn by Dwiggins was wide, including ranging (old style) figures, lining figures, and small capitals in the text and bold weights. A Greek version of the face is available. Caledonia ranks with Times New Roman as one of the most used book text faces.
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Caledonia made initially for machine composition with foundry type only made later, and then only in Germany. The following variants were designed by Dwiggins and released by Linotype:
Linotype also made 36 point matrices for Caledonia Bold Condensed, but it is doubtful that Dwiggins had anything to do with their design. The face was sold by Linotype in England under the same name, and in Germany as Cornelia.[2]
Cornelia, as it was called there, proved so popular in Germany, that the Stempel Foundry cast is as foundry type.[3]
Caledonia’s popularity as a text face continued right through the cold type era, and it was sold then under the following names:[4]
A digital version, called New Caledonia, available in four weights: text, semibold, bold, and black, each with small capitals, was released in 1982. Digital copies are made by Adobe and Linotype.