Goudy Old Style
Goudy Old Style (also known as just Goudy) is an old-style classic serif typeface originally created by Frederic W. Goudy for American Type Founders (ATF) in 1915.
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 Old Style is considered to be among the most legible and readable serif typefaces for use in print (offline) applications.[1]
Distinctive Visual Identifiable Characteristics
Characteristics of this typeface are:
lower case: square dot over the letter i. double storey a.
upper case: the capital Q's tail is centered under the figure, the uppercase J has a slight hook, and there are two versions of uppercase R, one with a straight tail and one with a curved tail.
figures:
History
Several variants, designed by several designers, were released in the ensuing years (all faces ATF unless otherwise specified):[2]
- Goudy Old Style (1915), designed by Frederic Goudy.
- Goudy Cursive (1916), a "loose italic" designed by Frederic Goudy.
- Goudy Bold (1916), was designed by Morris Fuller Benton.
- Goudy Old Style Italic (1918) designed by Frederic Goudy.
- Goudy Title (1918), is a full size variation on Goudy’s small capitals from his Goudy Old Style and was designed by Morris Fuller Benton.
- Goudy Bold Italic (1919), was designed by Morris Fuller Benton. The Lanston Monotype version of the italic includes cursive capitals by Sol Hess.
- Goudy Catalog (1919) and Goudy Catalog Italic (1921), were designed by Morris Fuller Benton as medium weight companions to Goudy Old Style.
- Goudy Handtooled + Italic (1922), were in-line versions of Goudy Bold + Italic and were probably designed by Charles H. Becker, though other authorities credit either Morris Fuller Benton or Wadsworth A. Parker. Again, the Lanston Monotype version of the italic includes cursive capitals by Sol Hess.
- Goudy Heavy Face Open (1926, Lanston Monotype) and Goudy Heavy Face Condensed (1927, Lanston Monotype), were designed by Sol Hess.
- Goudy Extra Bold + Italic (1927), were a further extension of the series by Morris Fuller Benton.
- Goudy Old Style Infant, which features single-story variants of the letters a and g in italic, bold, and bold italic styles and is used in children's books but is very rare.
The face was an instant best seller, prompting ATF to issue a special 124-page specimen book of the series in 1927. Goudy had sold the design to ATF for fifteen-hundred dollars and received no royalty on the type, causing his relationship with the foundry to deteriorate. Over time, because graphic designers came to see the face as more suitable for display, the bold became the most enduringly popular of the family.[3]
Hot Metal Copies
The face was immediately licensed to Lanston Monotype and some of the weights were issued by Intertype as well. Ludlow called its 1924 knock-off the Number Eleven series.[4]
Cold Type Copies
As the face was a "classic" almost from the day of its issue, producers of cold type offered their own versions of Goudy Old Style under the following names:[5]
Digital Copies
Digital copies have been made by Monotype Imaging, DTP Types, The League of Moveable Type, Electric Typographer, Lanston Type, Bitstream, URW++, Adobe, and Linotype. Goudy Catalog has been copied by Scangraphic, Bitstream, URW++, and Elsner+Flake. A version called Goudy Schoolbook also exists, with single-story versions of the letters a and g, but it is not for sale to the general public.
Usage
Goudy Old Style is the text typeface used in Harper's Magazine and the font used in the 'INFINITY BLADE' title screen. It is the official typeface of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. It is also used by the National University of Colombia.[6] It is also the standard body text font for Key Club publications.
Other Goudy Typefaces
Frederic Goudy's name is associated with many other typefaces designed by Goudy, but not related to Goudy Oldstyle, including:[7]
- Goudy Light + Italic (1908, Lanston Monotype)
- Goudy Lanston (1912, Village Letter Foundry, later Lanston Monotype)
- Goudy Roman (1914, Barnhart Brothers & Spindler), it is unclear if the type was ever cast in quantity.
- Goudy Open (1918, Village Letter Foundry + 1924, Monotype Ltd. + 1927, Continental)
- Goudy Modern (1918, Village Letter Foundry + 1924, Monotype Ltd. + 1927, Continental), basically just a “filled in” version of Goudy Open.
- Goudy Open Italic and Goudy Modern Italic (1919, Village Letter Foundry + 1924, Monotype Ltd.)
- Goudy Newstyle (1921, Village Letter Foundry + 1927, Continental + 1941, Lanston Monotype), re-cut in 1935 and sold to Monotype who then marketed it as Goudy Bible.
- Goudy Heavy Face + Italic (1925, Lanston Monotype + 1927, Continental), intend to compete with Cooper Black.
- Goudy Antique (1926, privately cast by Village Letter Foundry + 1927, Continental)
- Goudytype (1928, ATF), designed and cut in 1916, not cast and sold until later.
- Goudy Black (1928, Continental), later cast as Goudy Text by Lanston Monotype.
- Goudy Sans Serif series
- Goudy Forum (1929, Continental + 1932, Lanston Monotype)
- Goudy Ornate or Ornate Title (1930, Continental), capitals only
- Saks Goudy + Italic + Bold Caps (1934), a private type cast for Saks Fifth Avenue department store. Saks Goudy Bold Caps actually consists of the small capitals of larger sizes cast on larger bodies.
- Goudy Stout (1939, Continental), only cut in 24 pt. capitals, few ever cast.
- Goudy Thirty (1953, Lanston Monotype), cut with the intention of being issued after Goudy’s death, “thirty” being a newspaper term for the end of the story. Goudy finished work on it in 1942 and Monotype waited several years after his death in 1947 before issuing the font.
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.
- Lawson, Alexander S., Anatomy of a Typeface. Godine: 1990. ISBN 978-0-87923-333-4.
- Meggs, Philip B. and McKelvey, Roy.Revival of the Fittest: Digital Versions of Classic Typefaces. RC Publications: 2000. ISBN 1-883915-08-2.
- ^ About.com review of Classic Serif Typefaces
- ^ MacGrew, Mac, "American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century," Oak Knoll Books, New Castle Delaware, 1993, pp. 160-161, ISBN 0-938768-34-4.
- ^ Lawson, Alexander, Anatomy of a Typeface,David R. Godine, Publisher, Boston, 1990, ISBN 0-87923-332-X, pp. 110-119.
- ^ MacGrew, "American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century," pp. 160-161.
- ^ Lawson, Alexander, Archie Provan, and Frank Romano, "Primer Metal Typeface Identification," National Composition Association, Arlington, Virginia, 1976, pp. 34 - 35.
- ^ Resolución No. 001008, Agosto 14 de 2003, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 14 August 2003
- ^ MacGrew, "American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century," pp. 160-169.
External links