As read through this
week’s chapter I wasn’t finding myself particularly inspired to continue any
research for my blog. It wasn’t until the near the end of chapter 10 when I
found that the art and crafts movement had inspired the American Type Founders
Company (ATF) to revitalize many Victorian era typefaces. Garamond caught my
eye because I have always had a fondness for using it in my own documents—every
paper I ever wrote in college, as well as the technical reports I write at work
are in Garamond—the Microsoft and Adobe versions that is. I started to ask
myself why I am so drawn to this font and began observing my reactions to and
searching the internet for details on Garamond.
At first glance Garamond
appears to be any old common serif typeface like Times New Roman or Courier but when I look closer I realize there’s a simple
elegance to it. Garamond is proportioned well; the letters are not too thick,
not too thin. The more vertical letters are, especially ones that reach below
the line, are slightly elongated and give them a little drama without being
brash. The round letters are very round and the tall letters are slim which
keep the lines clean. The best part of Garamond has to be the capital J though
and how it reaches below the line like a lower case j (my name is Jeff and this
gives my typed name some character).
I found a handy website, indenifont.com,
which allowed me to search for various versions of Garamond and I got sucked in
to comparing the different versions. The first (below) is the original, by
Claude Garamond himself. Most of the serifs are simple and flat except a few
like the capital T and the lower case d have and angled serif. I especially
like the lower case g and how the lower part appears kinked somewhat.
The next is a very
popular version today, Adobe’s version of Garamond (below). Compared to Claude
Garamond’s, the serifs are all curved and the top serifs have a cup-like
quality. The capital A still has a slight angle at the top but the lower case g
is not kinked as I pointed out above.
Here we have a “elegant
Garamond,” published by Bitstream, which has it’s own take on many of the
letters. The proportions are still there which makes it recognizable as a Garamond
font, as well as the flat and wide serifs of the original version. But several
of the letters have been simplified as in the capital J no longer has the ball
at the end as in the previous two examples.
The final example I have
is Monotype’s revival version of Claude Garamon’s original. The proportions
from thick to thin are not as drastic and the serifs are curved, more like
Adobe’s version. I especially like the curved serif on top of the lower case m,
n, p and r.
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