Baskerville Font
The designer and history behind Baskerville font starts with John Baskerville, John Baskerville. Baskerville, who had made a fortune in japanning before turning to printing when in his midforties, was responsible for several advances in printing technology, improving press platens and packings, formulating darker and faster-drying inks, and inventing wove paper, which was smoother than the old laid papers with their vertical ribbing. All of this enabled him to employ a typeface with sharper definition and thinner elements than was previously possible. This marks the move from the "garalde" to the transitional faces.
Unfortunately, Baskerville could not compete economically with printers using the cheaper, established technology. His matrices were sold by his widow, and changes hands several times, disappearing into obscurity until they were rediscovered and made known by Bruce Rogers around 1920.
"Foundry" or "Fry" Baskerville is a later face based on the original Baskerville, which was cut by the Joseph Fry foundry in 1764. This cutting takes the face more in the direction of the Didots. Rogers used it for display with the original Baskerville as text font.
However, during those seven years he was an impressive innovator, not only in the construction of the printing press but even in the inks and papers he prepared. Among Baskerville’s most noted works are Milton’s Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, Book of Common Prayer, and his Bible of 1763 — generally considered to be his finest achievement. As Cambridge University owned the patent to that Bible version and the Prayer Books, they stipulated that Baskerville should actually take his printing presses to Cambridge to print them.
It wasn’t until the 1920s that Baskerville finally won the attention he had always merited. The American classical typographer Bruce Rogers (designer of the Centaur typeface, among others) was in large part behind the modern revival of Baskerville’s typefaces. Now, dozens of
Unfortunately, Baskerville could not compete economically with printers using the cheaper, established technology. His matrices were sold by his widow, and changes hands several times, disappearing into obscurity until they were rediscovered and made known by Bruce Rogers around 1920.
"Foundry" or "Fry" Baskerville is a later face based on the original Baskerville, which was cut by the Joseph Fry foundry in 1764. This cutting takes the face more in the direction of the Didots. Rogers used it for display with the original Baskerville as text font.
However, during those seven years he was an impressive innovator, not only in the construction of the printing press but even in the inks and papers he prepared. Among Baskerville’s most noted works are Milton’s Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, Book of Common Prayer, and his Bible of 1763 — generally considered to be his finest achievement. As Cambridge University owned the patent to that Bible version and the Prayer Books, they stipulated that Baskerville should actually take his printing presses to Cambridge to print them.
It wasn’t until the 1920s that Baskerville finally won the attention he had always merited. The American classical typographer Bruce Rogers (designer of the Centaur typeface, among others) was in large part behind the modern revival of Baskerville’s typefaces. Now, dozens of