In order to successfully print his types, Baskerville almost single-handedly advanced the state of printing technology. Baskerville‘s designs were based on thinner hairline strokes and delicate, tapering serifs and, while he considered them to be a great success, they had one major flaw: they were too delicate to be reproduced on 18th century printing presses. Although he much admired the work of William Caslon, he felt he could make significant improvements. His first goal was to design the “perfect” letterform. He was critical of the printing quality of his day and had no doubt he could improve almost every aspect of the trade. He had developed a private passion for typography and printing in his later years and promptly set up a printing office in Birmingham. By all accounts, he was not well liked, being exceedingly outspoken, strong willed, and egocentric.īaskerville retired, a wealthy man, in 1750. He was a successful businessman in japanning, which was the decorating of metal articles with coats of varnish and paintings of floral and pastoral images. John Baskerville: One of the chief influences of this period was English manufacturer John Baskerville, who, for most of his life, had nothing at all to do with printing or typography. Papers were, of course, hand-made and had uneven thicknesses and coarse surfaces, and printing inks were incapable of rendering dense solids. Presses were made mostly of wood and were incapable of applying even pressure from type to paper. By the beginning of the 18th century, printing technology had not changed significantly from the time of Gutenberg and was crude by contemporary standards. Typography has always been intrinsically linked to technology, a fact most dramatically illustrated by the introduction of the Transitional designs. Numerals are cap-height and consistent in size.The height of capitals matches that of ascenders.Wider, gracefully bracketed serifs with flat bases.A greater contrast between thick and thin stokes.Most notable representative fonts of the Transitional Age were Baskerville and Fournier. Make sure to take advantage of the Baskerville font and use it whenever you can.“TRANSITIONAL” TYPE is so-called because of its intermediate position between old style and modern. Besides all this, the font is also convenient for official documents. In addition to being used in books, this font is handy for creating logos, banners, brochures, posters, presentations, and many more. So, we understand that this font is trendy. The first volume of Joseph Addison’s Works (1761) was published.This font has been used in works by well-known authors, such as: Many used it to create books in the seventies. The Baskerville font is a typeface that has been around for a long time now. is the publisher of this Baskerville font. The Baskerville PT was designed by Dmitry Kirsanov for Paratype.īaskerville font inspires many fonts (see the similar fonts section for a list).Libre Baskerville was designed by Impallari Type and published by Google.The following is a list of some of the fonts that have been created based on the design of the Baskerville font: However, despite its old style, it can attract visitors. Among its characteristics is the lack of serifs, making it suitable for pairing with sans-serif fonts such as Helvetica or Arial. The 12 styles of this font are much older, so its use at present is a bit less noticeable. In fact, the Baskerville font is so well-known that many people mistakenly think that these newer fonts are actually based on it. These fonts are more recent designs that have been popularized in the last several decades. The typeface is named after him.įutura, Univers, and Gill Sans. Baskerville’s typefaces were inspired by the designs of John Handel, which are transitional typefaces to modern typefaces. It’s characterized by its geometric, serif-less lettering, except for the “J” and “Q.” It’s famous for its clarity and excellent legibility, making it popular because anyone can read it easily.īaskerville’s work brought about a marked improvement in the quality of printed works and is therefore a key figure in the development of the art of printing. If you’re into typography and design, chances are you’ve heard of the Baskerville font. Baskerville is a transitional serif typeface designed in the 1750s by John Baskerville, an English typographer.

Baskerville typeface terminology