BC - typeface choices

Brief information taken from Wikipedia as a reference, and could potentially be used as body copy/further information related to the typefaces. The initial selection of typefaces for BC, is based off popular used fonts and faces that aren't appreciated as much as ones that can be seen as more decorative, not type that is used everyday by everyone.

Caslon - Wikipedia

Caslon's earliest design dates to 1722 (?).^[2] Caslon is cited as the first original typeface of English origin, but type historians like Stanley Morison and Alfred F. Johnson, a scientist who worked at the British Museum, did point out the close similarity of Caslon's design to the Dutch Fell types cut by Voskens and other type cut by the Dutchman Van Dyck.^[3][4]

The earliest information about William Caslon as punch-cutter and typefounders can be found in:^[3]

• Rowe More, Dissertation 1778
• John Nicols, Biographical and Litarary Anecdotes of William Bowyer 1782, start at: pag. 316
• John Nicols, Litarary Anecdotes, 1812–1815

The two next authors fully based their writings on the three publications previously mentioned.

• Reed Talbot Baines, A History of Old English Letter Foundries, 1897
• Daniel Berkeley Updike, Printing types, their History, forms and use, 1937

The first founts cut by William Caslon were:

• Arabic, used in a "Psalter" in 1725
• Hebrew, used for John Selden's Works in 1726.
• Koptic, used for the bi-language Pentateuch of Dr. David Wilkins in Latin and Hebrew in 1731

There is much uncertainty about the first roman and italic Latin characters cut by Caslon himself, and the literature on this is partly incorrect.

Nicols writes: "he (Caslon) cut the beautiful fount of English which is used in printing Selden's Works 1726. Nicols describes this character as far superior over comtemporary Dutch founts used in English books at this period. Rowe More does not give any comment on this.

Dutch founts were in use by several printers in England at that time. The Oxford University Press used the "Fell-types", character cut by the Dutch typefounder Voskens. The Cambridge University Press had received in January 1698 some 52 series of alphabets from Holland, all cut by Van Dyck.^[5] But even before that in 1697 thay used the Text-sized roman and italic of Van Dyck in an edition of Gratulatio Cantabrigiences.^[6] Character of Van Dyck and Voskens is found also in: William Harison, Woodstock Park, Tonson, 1706.

Although Nicols attributes this character to Caslon, the fount used in Seldens Works is actually cut by Van Dyck. The italic is identical to the Van Dycks Augustijn Cursijf fount in specimen sheets issued in 1681 by the widow Daniel Elzevir.^[7][8] This woman had bought the typefoundry of Van Dyck after Van Dyck died.

The roman in this book, is a Garamond. This fount is used in the first volume and in the greater part of the second volume, It is found in a specimen sheet of the Amsterdam printer Johannes Kannewet, in accompagny with Van Dyck's Augustijn Cursijf. The only thing known about this Kannewet is that he was a printer, not a typefounder. This specimen-sheet is preserved in the Bagford-collection in the British Museum, and can be dated 1715 or earlier because Bagford died in 1716. There is no reason to suppose anything is added on a later date to this collection. The roman is named: Groote Mediaan Romyn. This fount is also found on a specimen sheet of the widow of Voskens. Therefore it can be assumed to be the work of Voskens. The earliest use of it at Amsterdam is 1684.^[9]

The earliest use of a roman and italic cut by Caslon can be identified in books printed William Bowyer in:

• 1725: roman and italic Pica-size, in the notes in Anacreon in Greek and Latin.
• 1726: roman and cursief, Pica-size, in: Reliquæ Baxterianæ
• 1730: roman and italic, English size, in the preface of Richard Baker's Chronicles of the Kings of England. The text-part is set in the Caslon Pica.

The founts cut by Caslon and his son, were close copies of the Dutch Old face cut by Van Dyck. These founts were rather fasionable at that time. The alternative founts they cut for text were a smaller, rather than a condensed letter.

The Caslon types were distributed throughout the British Empire, including British North America. Much of the decayed appearance of early American printing is thought to be due to oxidation caused by long exposure to seawater during transport from England to the Americas. Caslon's types were immediately successful and used in many historic documents, including the U.S. Declaration of Independence. After William Caslon I’s death, the use of his types diminished, but saw a revival between 1840–80 as a part of the British Arts and Crafts movement. The Caslon design is still widely used today. For many years a common rule of thumb of printers and typesetters was When in doubt, use Caslon.^[10]

Several revivals of Caslon do not include a bold weight. This is because it was unusual practice to use bold weights in typesetting during the 18th century, and Caslon never designed one. For emphasis, italics or a larger point size, and sometimes caps and small caps would be used instead.

It should be noted, that some revivals have little or nothing in common with the 18th century type cut by Caslon, besides the serifs and the name.

Didot - Wikipedia

Didot is a name given to a group of typefaces named after the famous French printing and type producing family. The classification is known as modern, orDidone. The typeface we know today was based on a collection of related types 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 is evocative of the Age of Enlightenment.

The "Foundry Daylight" version of Didot was commissioned and used by broadcast network CBS for many years alongside its famous "eye" logo.^[1]

Several revivals of the Didot faces have been made, most of them for hot metal typesetting. Like Bodoni, early digital versions suffered from a syndrome called "dazzle"–the hairline strokes in smaller point sizes nearly disappearing in printing. Among the more successful contemporary adaptations are the ones drawn by Adrian Frutiger for the Linotype foundry, and by Jonathan Hoefler for H&FJ. Both designs anticipate the degradation of hairline in smaller point sizes by employing heavier weighted strokes in the smaller point sizes.

Century - Wikipedia

With the merging of twenty-three foundries into American Type Founders in 1892, Linn Boyd Benton’s son, Morris Fuller Benton, was given the task of consolidating and purging the faces of these manufacturers into a coherent selection. Following this, he was given the task of adapting Century No. 2 to meet the Typographical Union standards of the time. Reccords now in the Smithsonian show that M.F. Benton not only re-designed his father's face, but did so with reference to #16 Roman of the Bruce Type Foundry which A.T.F. had recently acquired. (And which, probably not coincidentally, had been introduced in the Bruce Foundry catalog of 1877 which had been printed by De Vinne.)^[6] The result was Century Expanded, which proved hugely successful, so much so that by 1912 the A.T.F. catalog no longer offers the original Century Roman, while displaying 64 pages of samples of other members of the Century family.^[7] Following the successful introduction of this type, M.B. Benton embarked upon the creation of the first planned type family, and it is this conception of "type families" that is probably Benton's single greatest achievement. The faces were issued over a period of ten years, all of which were designed by Benton and issued by A.T.F.^[8]:

Century series

• Century Expanded (1900)
• Century Italic + Century Bold (1905)
• Century Bold Condensed (1909)
• Century Bold Extended (1910)

Bodoni - Wikipedia

Bodoni is a series of serif typefaces first designed by Giambattista Bodoni (1740–1813) in 1798. The typeface is classified as Didone modern. Bodoni followed the ideas of John Baskerville, as found in the printing type Baskerville, that of increased stroke contrast and a more vertical, slightly condensed, upper case, but taking them to a more extreme conclusion. Bodoni had a long career and his designs evolved and differed, ending with a typeface of narrower underlying structure with flat, unbracketed serifs, extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes, and an overall geometric construction. Though these later designs are rightfully called "modern", the earlier designs are "transitional". Among digital versions, there are two good examples of the earlier, transitional period: Sumner Stone's ITC Bodoni, and Günther Lange's "Bodoni Old Face" for Berthold. Virtually all other versions are based on Bodoni's most extreme late manner.

Bodoni admired the work of John Baskerville and studied in detail the designs of French type founders Pierre Simon Fournier and Firmin Didot. Although he drew inspiration from the work of these designers,^{[citation needed]} above all from Didot, no doubt Bodoni found his own style for his typefaces, which deservedly gained worldwide acceptance among printers.

Some digital versions of Bodoni are said to suffer from a particular kind of legibility degradation known as "dazzle" caused by the alternating thick and thin strokes, particularly from the thin strokes being very thin at small point sizes. This only occurs when display versions are used at text sizes, and it is also true of much display type that is used at text sizes. Non-dazzling versions of Bodoni that are intended to be used at text size are "Bodoni Old Face", optimized for 9 points, and ITC Bodoni 12 (for 12 points) and ITC Bodoni 7 (for 7 points).

Clarendon - Wikipedia

Clarendon is an English slab-serif typeface that was created in England by Robert Besley for the Fann Street Foundry in 1845.^[1] Due to its popularity, Besley registered the typeface under Britain's Ornamental Designs Act of 1842. The patent expired three years later, and other foundries were quick to copy it.^[2] Clarendon is considered the first registered typeface, with the original matrices and punches remaining at Stephenson Blake and later residing at the Type Museum, London. They were marketed by Stephenson Blake as Consort, though some additional weights (a bold and italics) were cut in the 1950s.

It was named after the Clarendon Press in Oxford. The typeface was reworked by the Monotype foundry in 1935. It was revised by Hermann Eidenbenz in 1953.

The font was used extensively by the government of the German Empire for proclamations during World War I,^{[citation needed]} and was also common in wanted posters of the American Old West.^[3]

^{Baskerville - Wikipedia}

Baskerville is a transitional serif typeface designed in 1757 by John Baskerville (1706–1775) in Birmingham, England. Baskerville is classified as a transitionaltypeface, positioned between the old style typefaces of William Caslon, and the modern styles of Giambattista Bodoni and Firmin Didot.

The Baskerville typeface is the result of John Baskerville's intent to improve upon the types of William Caslon. He 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. The curved strokes are more circular in shape, and the characters became more regular. These changes created a greater consistency in size and form.

Baskerville's typeface was the culmination of a larger series of experiments to improve legibility which also included paper making and ink manufacturing. The result was a typeface that reflected Baskerville's ideals of perfection, where he chose simplicity and quiet refinement. His background as a writing master is evident in the distinctive swash tail on the uppercase Q and in the cursive serifs in the Baskerville Italic. The refined feeling of the typeface makes it an excellent choice to convey dignity and tradition.

In 1757, Baskerville published his first work, a collection of Virgil, which was followed by some fifty other classics. In 1758, he was appointed printer to theCambridge University Press. It was there in 1763 that he published his master work, a folio Bible, which was printed using his own typeface, ink, and paper.

The perfection of his work seems to have unsettled his contemporaries, and some claimed the stark contrasts in his printing damaged the eyes. Abroad, however, he was much admired, notably by Fournier, Bodoni (who intended at one point to come to England to work under him), and Benjamin Franklin.

After falling out of use with the onset of the modern typefaces such as Bodoni, Baskerville was revived in 1917 by Bruce Rogers, for the Harvard University Press and released by Deberny & Peignot. In 1923, the typeface was also revived in England by Stanley Morison for the British Monotype Company as part of its program of revivals. Most recently, the Baskerville typeface was used as the basis for the Mrs Eaves typeface in 1996, designed by Zuzana Licko.

The font is used widely in documents issued by the University of Birmingham. A modified version of Baskerville is also prominently used in the Canadiangovernment's corporate identity program—namely, in the 'Canada' wordmark.

Times - Wikipedia

Times New Roman is a serif typeface commissioned by the British newspaper The Times in 1931, created by Cameron S. Latham at the English branch ofMonotype.^[1] It was commissioned after Stanley Morison had written an article criticizing The Times for being badly printed and typographically antiquated.^[2]The font was supervised by Morison and drawn by Cameron S. Latham, an artist from the advertising department of The Times. Morison used an older font named Plantin as the basis for his design, but made revisions for legibility and economy of space. As the old type used by the newspaper had been called Times Old Roman^{[citation needed]}, Morison's revision became Times New Roman and made its debut in the 3 October 1932 issue of The Times newspaper.^[3]After one year, the design was released for commercial sale. The Times stayed with Times New Roman for 40 years, but new production techniques and the format change from broadsheet to tabloid in 2004 have caused the newspaper to switch font five times since 1972. However, all the new fonts have been variants of the original New Roman font.

Some experts believe that the design was based on an earlier original work of William Starling Burgess.^[4] This theory remains controversial.^[5]

Because of its ubiquity, the typeface has been influential in the subsequent development of a number of serif typefaces both before and after the start of the digital-font era. One notable example is Georgia, shown below on the right, which has very similar stroke shapes to Times New Roman but wider serifs.

Although no longer used by The Times, Times New Roman is still widely used in book typography,^{[citation needed]} particularly in mass-market paperbacks in the United States. Especially due to its adoption in Microsoft products, it has become one of the most ubiquitous typefaces in history.