
Jannon only belatedly got proper credit for his work, in part because he had the bad luck to work for Protestant printers at the wrong time in French history, and his punches and molds were confiscated by the state. It was a welcome find, except that the faces weren’t really Garamond’s: they were the work of one of his admirers some 60 years later, Jean Jannon. The trail was indistinct because Garamond’s types fell into disuse for a couple of centuries, only to be “rediscovered” in the archives of France’s Imprimerie Nationale in the mid-19th century. But to establish this definitively took some detective work.

Scholars agree that the late 15th-century types of printer Manutius Aldus (cut by Francesco Griffo) were a singular source of inspiration for Garamond. Garamond’s designs didn’t appear out of thin air. The delicacy and lightness of Garamond’s originals was a stark contrast to the sturdy oldstyle faces that preceded them. Common features include only a slight angle of stress, generous counters, and the fulsomeness of the round letters. (The other 100,000 or so go by different names.) As we’ll see, some are attempts at revivals of Garamond’s original faces, while others would be better filed under “Inspired By.”įigure 1: Despite strong family resemblances, there are plenty of distinguishing characteristics among these six 20th-century Garamonds (compare the r s, for example). Looking at the host of faces now labeled “Garamond” offers a fascinating peek into how typeface designs evolve, what makes some endure, and just how subtle are the features that make for optimally legible, pleasurably readable type.įigure 1 shows a gallery of just a handful of the currently available types that go by the name Garamond. For more information visit this page.Frank Romano, Professor Emeritus at the Rochester Institute of Technology, recently quipped, “There are now over 200,000 typefaces, most of them based on Garamond.” O.K., that’s an exercise of comic license, but it’s hard to understate the influence of the designs of 16th-century French punch cutter Claude Garamond (whose name is sometimes spelled Garamont). This typeface is available within Office applications.
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Monotype Garamond? is a trademark of Monotype Typography, Ltd which may be registered in certain jurisdictions.ġ252 LaLatin 2: Eastern Europe 1251 Cyrillic 1253 Greek 1254 Turkish 1257 Windows Baltic 869 IBM Greek 866 MS-DOS Russian 865 MS-DOS Nordic 863 MS-DOS Canadian French 861 MS-DOS Icelandic 860 MS-DOS Portuguese 857 IBM Turkish 855 IBM Cyrillic primarily Russian 852 Latin 2 775 MS-DOS Baltic 737 Greek former 437 G 850 WE/Latin 1 437 US It works particularly well in books and lengthy text settings.ĭigitized data copyright Monotype Typography, Ltd 1991-1995. Garamond is a beautiful typeface with an air of informality which looks good in a wide range of applications.

The italic is based on types cut in France circa 1557 by Robert Granjon. Garamond's types were, in turn, based on those used by Aldus Manutius in 1495 and cut by Francesco Griffo.

Jannon followed the designs of Claude Garamond which had been cut in the previous century.

This typeface is based on roman types cut by Jean Jannon in 1615.
