Imprint (typeface)

Imprint is a serif typeface created by Monotype, commonly used for body text. Originally called Imprint Old Face, it is a sturdy design with a large x-height, Caslon-like but with more regularity in its letterforms. It was commissioned by the London publishers of The Imprint, a short-lived printing trade periodical that published during 1913.^[1]

Imprint has remained popular and is sold digitally by Monotype.^[2] A "shadowed" or inline version, with a cut taken out of the letters, has been widely released with Microsoft software, and is often used, especially in desktop publishing, for mastheads and titles.^[3]

Usage in The Imprint magazine

It was produced for the magazine (on a non-exclusive basis) in 1912 by the Monotype Company as Series 101 for automatic composition on the Monotype caster.^[4] When delivered to the journal's printers on December 31, 1912, it was still incomplete—the accents had not yet been made—so the editors asked in the first issue: “Will readers kindly insert them for themselves, if they find their omission harsh? For ourselves, we rather like the fine careless flavour, which their omission gives, after we have recovered from the first shock inevitable to us typographical precisians”.^[5]

Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition

Perhaps the most notable use since then has been for the entire setting of the Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (1989), 22,000 pages of precisely structured typography in 20 volumes.

Scottish Qualifications Authority

The font is used in all SQA exam papers.

Digital versions

It is available today as a digital OpenType font from Monotype's successor, Monotype Imaging, in regular, italic, bold and bold italic styles, as well as shadowed and shadowed italic styles (matching the bold weight).^[6] The current Pro release features text figures and small caps, the latter in the roman or regular style only.^[2]

References

1. ↑ McKitterick, David (2004). A history of Cambridge University Press. (1. publ. ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521308038.  |access-date= requires |url= (help)
2. 1 2 "Imprint MT". MyFonts. Monotype. Retrieved 12 July 2015. 
3. ↑ "Imprint MT". Microsoft Typography. Microsoft. Retrieved 12 July 2015. 
4. ↑ The Monotype Chronicles 1907 – 1916
5. ↑ The Imprint, January 1913, p. vi
6. ↑ Fonts.com: Imprint Volume

Monotype typefaces 1900s Binny Old Style 1910s Imprint Plantin 1920s Garamond Bodoni Poliphilus Blado Fournier Engravers Baskerville Horley Old Style Grotesque Colonna Bernard MT Gallia Pastonchi Gill Sans Othello Lutetia Solus Perpetua Centaur with Arrighi Bembo 1930s Bell Braggadocio Leysbourne Placard Kino Script Falstaff Inflex Littleworth Times New Roman Walbaum Monoline Script Rockwell Colmcille Runic Menhart Ashley Crawford Felix Titling Tempest Titling Van Dijck Emerson Gwendolin Gill Kayo Romulus Albertus Joanna (for private use) Twentieth Century Ehrhardt Pegasus Matura Sachsenwald Haarlemmer Bulmer 1940s Figaro 1950s Festival Titling Spectrum Angelus Klang Ashley Script Fontana Swing Castellar Headline Bold Mercurius Script Joanna (general release) Dante Pepita 1960s Octavian Forte Apollo Traveller Albertina Cartier New Berolina Fleet Titling Sabon Barbou 1970s Photina 1980s Calvert Nimrod Arial Footlight Calisto Cantoria 1990s Amasis Century Gothic Book Antiqua Curlz Carré Noir Gill Facia Cachet 2000s Neo Sans Slate 2010s Joanna Sans Release dates are approximate only. Not all typefaces shown.