Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
OLD STYLE
Garamond
Additional Old Style fonts
Although Old Style typefaces trace their
heritage to the printers of the Italian
Renaissance, their origins extend to an earlier
time, for Roman inscriptional letterforms (see
Fig. 1-18) inspired their capital-letter design.
The Caroline minuscules (see Fig. 1-27) from
medieval manuscripts inspired writing styles
during the fifteenth century, and these became
the model for Old Style lowercase letters.
Many Old Style typefaces bear the name
of Claude Garamond, a leading typeface
designer and punch cutter working in Paris
when the topic
Arithmetica
(Fig.
13-1
) was
published. In the heading material, the
designer has used bold capitals for the author's
name, two sizes of capitals for the title, and
italics for the subhead. The spatial intervals
between these units have been established
with great care. Fleurons (printer's flowers),
paragraph marks, a woodcut headpiece, and
a large initial letter intricately carved on a
woodblock bring vibrancy to this elegant
example of French Renaissance book design
and letterpress printing.
For more than five hundred years,
designers have created lively typeface
variations inspired by Italian and French
Old Style fonts of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries. The specimens in this section
display digitized versions of traditional
typefaces with distinctive design attributes.
13-1
Page 3 of
Arithmetica
, by Oronce Fine, printed
by Simon de Colines in Paris, 1535.
