![]() #ANATOMY OF A TYPEFACE SERIES#But by 1825 the German firm of Schelter and Giesecke had produced a series of condensed sans serifs, which included lowercase alphabets. The impact of the new commercial types evidently stimulated William Caslon IV of the famous typefounding family to experimentally offer, in 1816, a monotone type in capitals, without serifs, under the name “Two Lines of English Egyptian.” This 28-point type was the first sans serif to be offered as a printing type.Ĭaslon’s design did not receive immediate support, primarily because a number of serif types were introduced at the same time. Called fat faces, these types were eagerly received by printers specializing in the production of broadsides, and bills, etc. ![]() The first evidence of these changes was the introduction of extra-bold types patterned somewhat on the forms of the Didot and Bodoni styles. The Industrial Revolution brought printers, as the manufacturers, countless changes, for better or worse. ![]() In any event, the Boston firm was the first American foundry to introduce the surface design which was entertaining great popularity in Europe, particularly in England and Germany.Īt the present time, when sans serif types completely dominate the typography of the marketplace, it is difficult to recall that type founders, up to the beginning of the 19th century, sought only to please the printers. Probably it was the bold weight of the letterform which prompted the designation. ![]() If anyone can be blamed for perpetrating a minor hoax upon generations of American printers, it is perhaps the corporate body of the Boston Type and Stereotype Foundry, which issued-in 1837-a new series of types without serifs, under the name of Gothic. It is misnamed on two counts, having no historical relationship to Benjamin Franklin, and not being a gothic-at least in the traditional understanding of the term. When the late Steve Watts was manager of the type foundry at ATF, he was fond of saying that while “types come and go, Franklin Gothic goes on forever”-which was just another way of reminding printers that the type was a perennial best seller.įranklin Gothic, over the past 60 years, has been one of the best-known representatives of a style of type notable for its multiplicity of forms. ![]()
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