Baskerville

This article is about the font. For the person who created the font, see John Baskerville. For other uses, see Baskerville (disambiguation).

CategorySerif
ClassificationTransitional serif
Designer(s)John Baskerville
FoundryG. Peignot et Fils
Linotype
VariationsMrs Eaves
Shown hereBaskerville Ten by
František Štorm

Baskerville is a serif typeface designed in the 1750s by John Baskerville (1706–1775) in Birmingham, England, and cut into metal by punchcutter John Handy.[1][2][3][4] Baskerville is classified as a transitional typeface, intended as a refinement of what are now called old-style typefaces of the period, especially those of his most eminent contemporary, William Caslon.[5][a]

Compared to earlier designs popular in Britain, Baskerville increased the contrast between thick and thin strokes, making the serifs sharper and more tapered, and shifted the axis of rounded letters to a more vertical position.[8] The curved strokes are more circular in shape, and the characters became more regular. These changes created a greater consistency in size and form, influenced by the calligraphy Baskerville had learned and taught as a young man.[9] Baskerville's typefaces remain very popular in book design and there are many modern revivals, which often add features such as bold type which did not exist in Baskerville's time.[10]

As Baskerville's typefaces were proprietary to him[b] and sold to a French publisher after his death, some designs influenced by him were made by British punchcutters.[2] The Fry Foundry of Bristol created a version, probably cut by their typefounder Isaac Moore.[12][13][14] Marketed in the twentieth century as "Fry's Baskerville" or "Baskerville Old Face", a digitisation based on the more delicate larger sizes is included with some Microsoft software.[15][c]

  1. ^ Benton, Josiah (2014). John Baskerville : type-founder and printer, 1706 -1775. [S.l.]: Cambridge Univ Press. ISBN 9781108076227. Retrieved 10 December 2015.
  2. ^ a b Mosley, James. "John Baskerville". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Archived from the original on 11 February 2017. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  3. ^ Benton, Josiah Henry (1914). John Baskerville, Type-Founder and Printer, 1706-1775. Boston. Retrieved 12 February 2017.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ^ Robert Dodsley (22 January 2004). The Correspondence of Robert Dodsley: 1733-1764. Cambridge University Press. pp. 144–6. ISBN 978-0-521-52208-3.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Preface to Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Johnson, Alfred F. (1930). "The Evolution of the Modern-Face Roman". The Library. s4-XI (3): 353–377. doi:10.1093/library/s4-XI.3.353.
  7. ^ Eliason, Craig (October 2015). ""Transitional" Typefaces: The History of a Typefounding Classification". Design Issues. 31 (4): 30–43. doi:10.1162/DESI_a_00349. S2CID 57569313.
  8. ^ Phinney, Thomas. "Transitional & Modern Type Families". Graphic Design & Publishing Center. Archived from the original on 19 October 2015. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  9. ^ Johnson, Alfred F. (1959). Type Designs. London: Grafton & Co. pp. 69–79.
  10. ^ Coles, Stephen. "Top Ten Typefaces Used by Book Design Winners". FontFeed (archived). Archived from the original on 28 February 2012. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
  11. ^ Pardoe, F.E. (1990). "Two unrecorded Baskerville items". Bulletin of the Printing Historical Society (27): 1–3.
  12. ^ a b Mosley, James (1963). "English Vernacular". Motif. 11: 3–56. Their roman, known today as Fry's Baskerville, was probably the work of Isaac Moore, who later became a partner in the foundry. In its larger sizes it is one of the most elegant types which have ever been cut, and it is by no means a simple derivative. The curves of the lower-case letters are flatter than Baskerville's and the serifs are slightly more tapered.
  13. ^ Smith, John (1787). The Printer's Grammar (1787 ed.). pp. 271–316. Retrieved 16 June 2018. Since the first appearance of Smith's Printers Grammar, and Mr. Luckombe's History of Printing, many very useful improvements have been made in the Letter Foundery of Messrs. Fry and Son, which was begun in 1764, and has been continued with great perseverance and assiduity, and at a very considerable expense. The plan on which they first sat out, was an improvement of the Types of the late Mr Baskerville of Birmingham, eminent for his ingenuity in this line, as also for his curious Printing, many proofs of which are extant, and much admired: But the shape of Mr. Caslon's Type has since been copied by them with such accuracy as not to be distinguished from those of that celebrated Founder…The following short Specimen may serve to convey some idea of the Perfection to which that Manufactory is arrived.
  14. ^ Shaw, Paul (2017). Revival Type: Digital Typefaces Inspired by the Past. Yale University Press. pp. 94–9. ISBN 978-0-300-21929-6.
  15. ^ Mosley, James. "Comments on Typophile thread". Typophile. Archived from the original on 28 September 2017. Retrieved 28 September 2017. The Fry foundry, whose first types in the 1760s were what they called an 'improvement' of Baskerville's...[Stephenson Blake] cast some types from the Fry 'Baskerville' matrices, then decided to add the smaller sizes of this type and market the typeface as Baskerville Old Face.
  16. ^ Millington, Roy (2002). Stephenson Blake: the last of the Old English typefounders (1st ed.). New Castle, Del. [u.a.]: Oak Knoll Press [u.a.] pp. 104, 228. ISBN 9780712347952.
  17. ^ Bartram, Alan (2007). Typeforms: a history. London: British Library. p. 48. ISBN 9780712309714.


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