Didot (typeface)

Didot
CategorySerif
Shown hereLinotype Didot
by Adrian Frutiger

Didot is a group of typefaces. The word/name Didot came from the famous French printing and type-producing Didot family.[1] The classification is known as modern, or Didone.

The most famous Didot typefaces were developed in the period 1784–1811. Firmin Didot (1764–1836) cut the letters, and cast them as type in Paris. His brother, Pierre Didot (1760–1853) used the types in printing. His edition of La Henriade by Voltaire in 1818 is considered his masterwork. The typeface takes inspiration from John Baskerville's experimentation with increasing stroke contrast and a more condensed armature. The Didot family's development of a high contrast typeface with an increased stress is contemporary to similar faces developed by Giambattista Bodoni in Italy.

Didot is described as neoclassical, and evocative of the Age of Enlightenment. The Didot family were among the first to set up a printing press in the newly independent Greece, and typefaces in the style of Didot have remained popular in Greek since.[2][3]

  1. ^ Tracy, Walter (1985). "Didot: an honoured name in French typography". Bulletin of the Printing Historical Society (14): 160–166.
  2. ^ John D. (ed.). Berry (2002). Language Culture Type: International Type Design in the Age of Unicode. ATypI. pp. 82–4. ISBN 978-1-932026-01-6.
  3. ^ "GFS Didot". Greek Font Society. Archived from the original on 2 March 2016. Retrieved 10 August 2015.