garamond

d baer

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garamond

garamond

garamond

innovations

history

technology

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garamond

garamond

garamond

evolution

contemporary

anatomy

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innovations
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anatomy

t y pe i n n ovati o n s
During the sixteenth century the techniques of printing
and moveable type were spreading throughout Europe.
In Germany, new printing techniques and letter-forms
were advancing and being invented. These modernizations spread rapidly. In France, a Renaissance man
called Geoffroy Tory set out to improve the French
language. He created systems of improving and adding specific letter-forms; such as accent marks. Years
later Claude Garamond, also known as Garamont,
achieved a high reputation as a type designer. He
revolutionized the quality of printing.

In 1480 he was born in Paris. Throughout his life he

was greatly influenced by Geoffroy Tory, and Aldus Manutius; innovative designers of the time. First, he mastered the art of punch cutting; cutting letter punches in
steel to make matrices for copper type. He learned the
trade under the apprenticeship of Antoine Augereau and
Simon de Clines in fifteen-ten. They were customary
printers who created Greek fonts. Later, he studied with
Geoffroy Tory. Tory was already a well-established type
designer and punch cutter who taught Garamond about
the punch-cutting techniques. Garamond also established some of Torys philosophies and incorporated
them into his purpose for designing type.

innovations
history
technology
evolution
contemporary
anatomy

The typefaces he designed were based on roman

and italic types. He was highly influenced by Tory. He
wanted his letter-forms to be easily read; he purified
and enhanced them. Fifteen-thirty edition of Paraphrasis in Elganterium Libros Laurentii Vallae, by Erasmus.
Every letter-form was drawn, engraved, and casted by
him alone Aetna roman, of Aldus Manutias, was developed and refined into a typeface of his own that he
thought was more legible. He was then approached
by Robert Estienne, a printer and established scholar
from Paris, who wanted to employ Garamond and use
his font called Grecs du roi.

Grec du roi was a Greek typeface which had a large

amount of ligatures. This request was sought out royally, by the king if France himself, which furthered his
reputation as a type designer. Garamond often his fonts
from different forms of handwriting from specific people,
such as Angelo Vergecio (the kings librarian at Fontainbleau) and his young pupil Henri Estienne. Although
a lot of his types were based on handwriting, his italic
types were not because they were designed as metal
types. Eventually Garamond started publishing his own
type for himself.

This type included a new kind of italic type which

was cut into two sizes. Since he was from France his
types were widely accepted there, and his typefaces
became a significant influence in their roman letter
standard, in place of black-letter types. After his death
in fifteen-ten, his typefaces were sold and are still
used today. In recent times the font that is attributed to
Garamond now, is actually not one of the fonts that he
created. It was produced by a French Printer, named
Jean Jannon. Because Jannon designed her font based
on his, many of the attributes are similar. Its viewed as
a contemporary restoration of his original designs.

innovations
history
technology
evolution
contemporary
anatomy

hi s to ry
o f g a r a mo n d
The development of typography and writing throughout history has advanced ever since the 15th century
when the letterpress and moveable type was invented.
After the humanist movement, type designers wanted
to continue to revolutionize type. The classification
called Garalde, also known as Aldine, was created to
categorize certain old style typefaces. At the time important Garalde fonts included Garamond and Bembo.
Claude Garamond was initially recognized for the design of Garamond; however Jean Jannon was actually
the real creator of this illustrious font.

Garamond in its true majestic form exemplifies a pure,

classic and legible impression that has impacted the
progression of typography and printing technology since
the 16th century to present day. The innate structure
of every letter was coherently designed; utilizing thick
strokes and heavy bracketed serifs which defined old
styles primitive aesthetic qualities.

innovations
history
technology
evolution
contemporary
anatomy

All the letters in Garamond are proportional to one

another. Only a light contrast between thick and thin
strokes exists. The weight of every letter is similar
and consistent. A slight tilted stress is present in letters like O and Q. Letters contain deeply bracketed serifs which are long and prominent. The serifs
change shape, becoming curvier, when the letters are
italicized. The serifs attached to all of the letters are
tapered, giving them a sophisticated sensation. Some
serifs are disproportionate. Both serifs on the capital
T are different; the left serif has a descending slant
whereas the right serif is vertical and upright.

Every aspect within Garamond is rounded. The tail on

the Q is bowed and elongated, adding flare. Letters
a and e have noticeable characteristics which make
them unique. The bowl in the a and the eye in the e
are small in relation to other typefaces. Capital letters
are also shorter than the ascenders on the lowercase
letters, and the x-heights are small. Italic Garamond letters are more decorative than regular style letters. For
example, the ampersand & is like calligraphy, extremely decorative and elaborate. Garamond was designed to
be curvilinear and open for the purposes of readability;
similar to the more modern typeface Helvetica.

innovations
history
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evolution
contemporary
anatomy

Unlike Garamond, Helvetica is contemporary and

was created in the 20th century. It is a sans serif font
which means there are no brackets or serifs. All letters
in Helvetica are simplified and contain equal strokes.
Besides the fact that their styles are completely different, specific aspects of the letters are not designed the same way. Helveticas letters are boxy and
straight, while Garamonds letters vary more in stroke
and are tapered. Since Garamond was based on
handwriting and calligraphy the strokes almost resemble the same quality. Helvetica is bare, mechanical,
and block-like. Stress within certain characters does
not exist within Helvetiva; they are all directly upright.

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The tail in the Q is stout and short in Helvetica. Ascenders in Garamond appear long and extended, compared to Helveticas. Garamonds lowercase g contains a fancy loop, whereas Helveticas lowercase g
is short like a tail. It is fascinating how both fonts are
extremely diverse, yet contain the same purpose of legibility for their time.

h e lv e t i c a

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anatomy

t e c h n o lo g y
o f g a r a mo n d
The sixteenth century was a time period in which
the art of booking making was becoming revolutionized and prevalent. Garamond was highly influenced
by past type-designers so he set out his career as a
printer, punch-cutter, and type-designer. At the time,
propaganda and religious texts were highly sought
after; which was essential to the progression of society at the time. Different standards of printing became
widespread and significant in any type-foundry. Since
there were few skilled in the field of printing, there was
often a lot of competition. There were not many artists
who could actually master the craft of punch-cutting
and typecasting because it was tedious and and
particularly difficult process.

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In order to acquire the tools for printing one had to purchase punches and matrixes from the spouse of a deceased printer. There was also an off-chance that they
could bargain with a competitor for their letters. This
interaction was rare which made the designers valuable.

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innovations
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anatomy

Garamond became well-known throughout France. At

first he was hired by a Parisian scholar-printer, called
Estienne. He wanted Garamond to design a new series
of fonts. He ended up creating innovative Roman fonts
which became extensively desired. As he became
popular he was eventually noticed by King Francois
I. The King was especially interested in book-making
so he commissioned Garamond to produce a specific
Greek font that was unique and exceptional. This font
would only be able to be utilized by the king, himself.
This was a challenge for Garamond because he needed to make this font incomparable to other typefaces
that already existed. It needed to be more readable
and superior for the great King.

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His masterpiece that was generated was known as

Grecs du Roi. It consisted of three fonts which were
influenced by the handwriting of Angelos Vergestios. He
cut the largest size first, which were sixteen point-bodies. Later he produced italic letters that were imperative to the way in which typefaces and printing methods
were evolving. Italics were beginning to be used in different ways; they had various connotations in a body of
text. His new italics revolutionized how they are used.

abcdefghijklm
nopqrstuvwxyz
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRS
TUVWXYZ$%^&
grec s d u r o i

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innovations
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anatomy

Garamond wanted to achieve the highest quality

of printing; he wanted to be the best. He molded his
designs and ideas off of the works of Venetian printers, such as Aldus Manutius. Their work embodied the
superiority of the elite and aesthetics of high class society. Everything he created was carefully thought-out
and made in relation to the evolution of the development of type. The books that he printed were laid out
in his own distinctive style. He focused on clarity and
therefore gave his pages substantial margins. His designs were so extensive that they still are important for
designers to this day. His letters are extremely comprehensible and have been used for over 450 years.

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He put thought into every detail from the type of paper

to the emphasized binding methods. The spaces in-between letters were important and directly correlated with
the layout and legibility of books at that time.

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innovations
history
technology
evolution
contemporary
anatomy

evo luti o n
o f g a r a mo n d
Claude Garamonds work as a printer rendered him
one of the most exquisite designers of the sixteenth
century. Printers and punch-cutters that preceded
Garamond were influenced greatly by his styles. If it
was not for Garamond France may have only used
black-letter fonts, even today. Garamond replaced
black-letter forms with his, more elegant, roman letters. His more modern oblique capitals complimented
the italic lowercase creating a new kind of style that
became popular. His letterforms were more delicate
than ones before. He made his own refinements, such
as using larger counters and capitals, and using more
openly curved strokes. His intentions were purely
based on legibility and purpose of his typeface.

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Years after Garamonds death designers utilized his

work. A Frenchmen, named Jean Jannon, was infatuated with Garamonds style so much that he produced
his own font, which was soon to be mistaken for Garamonds. Garamonds type was reproduced many times
by popular type foundries. In nineteen-twenty seven the
Intertype Foundry made use of his type. Following this
trend Mergenthaler Linotype and Monotype both made
use of his typeface. They came up with different names
for the letters such as Garamond No.3 and American
Garamond. Afterwards, the International Typeface Corporation released a large Garamond family that included
sixteen designs.

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innovations
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anatomy

ITC Garamond was created as a harmonious, yet

whimsical family. Even though a lot of the designs
related to Jannons work, other designs being made
were created from Garamonds original blueprints. A
man named George Jones made type this way, and it
was released by the Linotype & Machinery of London
in nineteen twenty-four. In this case it was given the
name Granjon, instead of Garamond. The technology
of punch cutting and movable type has not been used
in years since the age of computers. At the time this
technology greatly affected the layout of letters. It was
a very in depth process which Garamond mastered
from his mentor, Geoffroy Tory. As a humanist Tory
was inspired by human anatomy.

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His sketches were created scientifically. The proportions he used for his alphabet directly related to his
idea of the ideal form. He even said that, the crossstroke covers the mans organ of generation, to signify
that modesty and chastity are required, before all else,
in those who seek acquaintance with well-shaped letters. In this he believed that scientific reasoning and
logic, relating to the human figure, was needed in order
to make the perfect letterforms.

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innovations
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anatomy

He engraved sketches for the font Romain Du Roi that

incorporated a grid system and exact measurementslibrarian at Fontainbleau) and his young pupil Henri
Estienne. Although a lot of his types were based on
handwriting, his italic types were not because they
were designed as metal types. Eventually Garamond
started publishing his own type for himself. Garamond
learned to design his fonts this way, and it was the
highest form of expertise that they had at the time.
Now that computers exist his font has been re-made
in order to fit into modern type foundries, so that they
can still be used in advertising in the media, and online. The edges of each letter have to be flawless for
legibility. The letters that were made in Garamonds
time may have slightly evolved since than in order to fit
today standards.

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innovations
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anatomy

co n te mp o r a ry
ga r a mo n d
Garamonds letterforms are still being used today; they
are essentially used for popular corporation advertisements, books, and logos. Garamonds purpose for his
font has still been maintained throughout history. He
originally created it for the purpose of legibility, mainly
for books. It was used for printing books. His work
was considered ground-breaking and he used in to
produce books like Paraphrases in Elegantiarum Libros
Laurentii Ballae, by Erasmus. Later it was used for important books like Gullivers Travels, in nineteen-fifty. It
was used for advertisement in Paris Worlds Fair in the
beginning of the twentieth century.

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Recently it was used for the American editions of J.K.

Rowlings Harry Potter books. They are all set in eleven
and a half point Adobe Garamond. It is used in childrens books, like Dr.Seuss. The scientific world also
uses Garamond for their scientific documents. Nvidia,
which is a global technology company, uses it for their
companies PDFs.

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innovations
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anatomy

Logos for trendy companies like Abercrombie & Fitch,

and Neutrogena both base their design on Garamond.
It is even used in prestigious logos for colleges, such
as Duke University. They used Garamond three for the
word DUKE. This specific one was also used in the
U.S. Department of Transportations highway signs.
Garamond is largely used for programming because it
is easy to read and follow.

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Duke
U N I V E R S I T Y

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innovations
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anatomy

The usage of Garamond has not changed much since

its origin. It is still utilized because of its readability, and its usage in books. It has only been changed
throughout the adaptation of web and media. There
are many revivals based on his original design that
are not exactly the same. Digital versions were used
in major design works. One example is Sabon, created by Jan tschichold. When Tony Stan developed
his font into ITC Garamond minor changes had to be
made. The x-height was increased, and large ranges
of weights from light to ultra bold were produced.
Some have a condensed width that were not present
in Garamonds original design.

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innovations
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anatomy

Fonts based directly from Garamond include Stempel

Garaond, Adobe Garamond, Sabon, Garamond Premier, and Garamond Antiqua. The fonts more closey
related to Jean Jannons works are Monotype Garamond, Simoncini Garamond, Linotype Garamond,
Linotype Granjon, ATF Garamond, LTC Garamond,
Storm Jannon Antiqua, and Garamond Classico. The
Newest revivals of the font are ITC Garamond, and
Apple Garamond.

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Throughout history the design of typefaces and the

technology of printing has been extremely important.
The idea of printing revolutionized the world in every
area of technology. Print and text is used in almost
everything to this day. Garamonds designs withstood
changes because he scientifically designed it to be
legible and convenient to all kinds of media. His work
was intended for the French king, so it was significant
politically. His designs still exist today because Garamond succeeded in his designs and intentions for his
alphabets. He created his own commercial enterprise
specifically to sell his punches and strikes to other
printers. His letterforms make sense and are the basis
of typefaces that were developed after his. His elegant
letterforms stand out and were one of the first old-style
fonts to become renown and used world-side.

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innovations
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anatomy

an ato my
o f g a r a mo n d
Rounded Forms
Round-Square Forms
Square Forms
Diagonal Square Forms
Diagonal Forms

rounded forms

Qq Oo
Gg Cc
Uu Ss
4

diagonal stress

tail flows from bowl

descender

different shaped spurs

flat ear

spur

U counter narrower than O counter

b o t h S s h a v e s i m i l a r p r o p o r t i o n s

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round-square forms

Bb Dd
Ee Jj
Pp Rr

the B is narrower than the O

arm

dots slightly offset

small counter

shoulder

disconnected bowl

descender

juncture

square forms

Ff Ll
Ii Tt

tail flows from bowl

stem

left and right serifs differ

terminal

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diagonal square forms

Nn Yy
K k Zz
Mm

N and O are almost equal in width

slanted serif

foot

leg

extra weight in bowl curves

weight change

diagonal forms

Aa Vv
Xx &
Ww

slightly rounded apex

bracketed swash

cap height

two diagonal strokes

x height

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30 -

point garamond

ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRS
T U V W X Y Z fl fi
abcdefghijklm
nopqrstuvwxyz
1234567890&
. , ;:!?{ }
abcdefghijklm
nopqrstuvwxyz
&1234567890
ligatures

small caps

old style figures

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point garamond italic

ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRS
T U V W X Y Z fl fi
abcdefghijklm
nopqrstuvwxyz
1234567890&
. , ;:!?{ }

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30 -

point garamond bold

ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRS
T U V W X Y Z fl fi
abcdefghijklm
nopqrstuvwxyz
1234567890&
. , ;:!?{ }
abcdefghijklm
nopqrstuvwxyz

&1234567890

30 -

point garamond bold italic

ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRS
T U V W X Y Z fl fi
abcdefghijklm
nopqrstuvwxyz
1234567890&
. , ;:!?{ }

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paragraph size

Garamonds letterforms are still being used today;

they are essentially used for popular corporation advertisements, books, and logos. Garamonds purpose
for his font has still been maintained throughout
history. He created it for the purpose of legibility.
18 -

point

Garamonds letterforms are still being used today; they are essentially used for popular corporation advertisements, books, and
logos. Garamonds purpose for his font has still been maintained
throughout history. He created it for the purpose of legibility.
14 -

point

Garamonds letterforms are still being used today; they are essentially used
for popular corporation advertisements, books, and logos. Garamonds purpose for his font has still been maintained throughout history. He created it
for the purpose of legibility, mainly for books.
12 -

point

Garamonds letterforms are still being used today; they are essentially used for
popular corporation advertisements, books, and logos. Garamonds purpose for his
font has still been maintained throughout history. He created it for the purpose of
legibility, mainly for books.
11 -

point

Garamonds letterforms are still being used today; they are essentially used for popular corporation advertisements,
books, and logos. Garamonds purpose for his font has still been maintained throughout history. He created it for
the purpose of legibility, mainly for books.
8 -

point

bibliography

Gabor, Peter. Garamond v Garamond | Physiology of a typeface. Barney Carroll is

a front-end web developer. http://barneycarroll.com/garamond.htm (accessed November 29, 2012).

Garamond - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garamond (accessed November 29, 2012).

Grecs du roi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grecs_du_roi (accessed November 29, 2012).

Lawson, Alexander S.. Garamond. In Anatomy of a typeface. Boston: Godine,

1990. 129-140.

Loxley, Simon. Garamuddle:when is a sixteenth-century typeface not a sixteenthcentury typeface?. In Type: the secret history of letters. London: I.B. Tauris, 2004.
40-42.

Macmillan, Neil. Claude Garamond. In An A-Z of type designers. New Haven,

CT: Yale University Press, 2006. 89.

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