Five classic typefaces
So I’m well into the first book on my list, Designing with type: The Essential Guide to Typography. This book is a mine of information and it’s not overwhelming at all, you just keep reading and reading and you learn!
One very useful thing I have learned: the letters that will provide me the most design information when I want to determine what typeface I’m looking at are R, T, W for the uppercase letters and h, a, e, g and o for the lowercase letters.
According to the book, the five classic typefaces are:
Garamond
- Claude Garamond was originally credited with this typeface but it was Jean Jannon who actually designed it in 1615
- Old Style face
- little contrast between the thick and thin strokes
- heavily bracketed serifs
- oblique stress
- capital letters are shorter than the ascenders of the lowercase letters
- letterforms are open and round, making the face extremely readable
Baskerville
- created in 1757 by Englishman John Baskerville
- Transitional typeface
- greater contrast between the thicks and the thins
- serifs are less heavily bracketed
- stress is almost vertical
- characters are wide for their x-height, are closely fitted and are of excellent proportions
- one of the most pleasant and readable typefaces
Bodoni*
- designed in late 1700s by Giambattista Bodoni
- Modern typeface
- stronger contrast between the thicks and thins
- has a small x-height, makes it appear to be very wide and black
- strong vertical stress, accentuated by heavy thicks and hairline thins
- should be well-leaded
*typeface is Bodoni Svty Two ITC TT
Century Expanded* / Egyptian
- designed in 1894 by Linn Boyd Benton
- first major American typeface
- thick slab serifs
- thick main strokes with little contrast between the thicks and thins
- large x-height and simple forms combine to make it a very legible typeface
*typeface is Century
Helvetica
- designed by Max Miedinger (from Haas Grotesk)
- sans serif typeface of Swiss origin
- large x-height
- slightly condensed letters
- has very little stress
From Designing with type by James Craig (chapter 2)
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