Junicode

Junicode
Category Serif
Classification Old-style
Designer(s) Peter S. Baker
Date created 2001
Date released 30 December 2012 (version 0.7.8)
License OFL
Variations Regular, Italic, Bold, Bold Italic
Sample

Junicode ("Junius-Unicode") is a free (SIL Open Font License) old-style serif typeface developed by Peter S. Baker of the University of Virginia. The design is based on a 17th-century typeface used in Oxford, England.

Junicode contains many special characters and ligatures for medievalists, along with numerous other Unicode glyphs. The font has OpenType features for advanced typesetting and includes true small caps.

The most recent revision of Junicode is 0.7.8, released on 30 December 2012.[1]

Design

A comparison between (1) Adobe Garamond Pro, (2) Junicode, (3) Adobe Caslon Pro

The designs of the Junicode roman characters are based on a 17th-century typeface design used at the Oxford University Press, also known as Clarendon Press. Peter Baker based the Junicode roman design on those used in Linguarum Vett. Septentrionalium Thesaurus (1703–1705).[2] The designs represent an intermediate stage between earlier 16th century typefaces (such as Garamond) and later 18th century typefaces (such as Caslon). The Junicode roman character design shares a number of features with these earlier and later typefaces.

Junicode's Greek typeface design is a traditional revival as well. It is based on the Greek Double Pica cut by Alexander Wilson (c. 1714-1786), a Scottish doctor, astronomer, and typefounder. Wilson's typeface was used in 1756-1758 for a renowned edition of Homer's epics (the Iliad and the Odyssey),[3][4] printed by Robert Foulis and Andrew Foulis of the Foulis Publishing House and printers to the University of Glasgow.

Origins and uses

The Junicode font was developed especially for medievalists, due to the need for a font to cover the large number of special characters and ligatures used in medieval manuscripts. The font has complete support for the Medieval Unicode Font Initiative version 1.0, and nearly complete support for version 2.0.

Despite the specialization of Junicode for the needs of medievalists, the font is quite complete and supports a large number of Unicode characters. In the regular style, over 3000 characters are available. This makes Junicode useful for a wide range of languages that utilize the Latin alphabet, including scholarly texts and publications that require special diacritics not traditionally found in conventional fonts.

Availability and development

Junicode is free and open source software licensed under the SIL Open Font License, and is released in the TrueType format, which is used on most operating systems. Additionally, specific packages for Junicode are available for open source systems such as Debian, Ubuntu, and FreeBSD.

The Junicode font is developed in the FontForge typeface editing program. The font includes TrueType hinting, and the hinting instructions are developed in XML files used by the Xgridfit application, which developers use to generate low-level TrueType hinting instructions.

Notes

  1. ↑ "Release Name: junicode-0-7-8". 2012-12-30. Retrieved 2013-01-01.
  2. ↑ Peter S. Baker (2006). "Typing in Old English since 1967: A Brief History". Old English Newsletter Online. Volume 40.1. Retrieved 2009-12-29.
  3. ↑ Stephen Brown; Warren McDougall (30 November 2011). The Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland, Volume 2: Enlightenment and Expansion 1707-1800. Oxford University Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-7486-5095-8.
  4. ↑ Vogel, David (16 October 2013). "October 16: Alexander Wilson". The Designer's Almanac. Retrieved 30 January 2015.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Junicode.