Baskerville

Category	Serif
Classification	Transitional serif
Designer(s)	John Baskerville
Foundry	G. Peignot et Fils Linotype
Variations	Mrs Eaves
Shown here	Baskerville Ten by František Štorm

Baskerville is a serif typeface designed in 1757 by John Baskerville (1706–1775) in Birmingham, England and cut by John Handy.^[1] Baskerville is classified as a transitional typeface, intended as a refinement of what are now called old-style typefaces of the period, especially those of his most eminent contemporary, William Caslon.^[2]

Compared to earlier designs, Baskerville increased the contrast between thick and thin strokes, making the serifs sharper and more tapered, and shifted the axis of rounded letters to a more vertical position.^[3] The curved strokes are more circular in shape, and the characters became more regular. These changes created a greater consistency in size and form. Baskerville's typefaces remain very popular in book design and there are many modern revivals, which often add features such as bold type which did not exist in Baskerville's time.^[4]

History

The Folio Bible printed by Baskerville in 1763.

Baskerville's typeface was the culmination of a large series of experiments. Baskerville, a wealthy industrialist who had begun his career as a writing-master, sought to develop new and higher-quality methods of printing, developing also finely pressed, smooth paper and a high quality of ink.^[5][6][7][8] The result was a typeface that reflected Baskerville's ideals of perfection, where he chose simplicity and quiet refinement.^[9]

While Baskerville's types in some aspects recall the general design of William Caslon, the most eminent punchcutter of the time, John Dreyfus and others have written that aspects of his design recalled his handwriting and common elements of the calligraphy taught at the time, which had been used in copperplate engraving but had not been previously been cut into type.^[10][11] Such details included many of the intricate details of his italic, such as the flourishes on the capital N and entering stroke at top left of the italic 'p'.

In 1757, Baskerville published his first work, a collection of Virgil, which was followed by some fifty other classics. In 1758, he was appointed printer to the Cambridge University Press. It was there in 1763 that he published his master work, a folio Bible, which was printed using his own typeface, ink, and paper. At the start of his edition of Paradise Lost, he wrote a preface explaining his ambitions.^[12][13]

The crispness of his work seems to have unsettled his contemporaries, and some claimed the stark contrasts in his printing damaged the eyes.^[12] Baskerville was never particularly successful as a printer, being a printer of specialist and elite editions. Abroad, however, he was much admired, notably by Pierre Simon Fournier, Giambattista Bodoni (who intended at one point to come to England to meet him), and Benjamin Franklin, who wrote him a letter praising his work.^[14][15] His work was later admired in England by Thomas Frognall Dibdin, who wrote that 'in his Italic letter...he stands unrivalled; such elegance, freedom and perfect symmetry being in vain to be looked for among the specimens of Aldus and Colinaeus...Baskerville was a truly original artist, he struck out a new method of printing in this country and may be considered as the founder of that luxuriant style of typography at present so generally prevails; and which seems to have attained perfection in the neatness of Whittingham, the elegance of Bulmer and the splendour of Bensley."^[16] Thomas Curson Hansard seems to have had misgivings about his work, praising him in some ways but also suggesting that he was a better printer than a type designer.^[6] On his death his widow Sarah eventually sold his material to a Paris literary society connected to Beaumarchais, placing them out of reach of British printing.

Baskerville's styles of type and printing, although initially unpopular in Britain, proved influential for a brief transitional period in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, with printers and type designers such as Fry, Moore and Wilson of Glasgow. Bulmer, cut by the brother of Baskerville's foremen, was one design inspired by it, as is Bell.^[3][13] This period saw an increasing influence of Didone printing from the Continent, from typefaces such as Didot and Bodoni. It then disappeared from view following a trend towards Didone typefaces, often with a much darker style of impression; Updike suggests that this change mostly happened around 1815-20.^[13] The Scotch Roman genre which proved popular in Britain and America is something of an intermediate between Didone typefaces and Baskerville's influence. The succession of more extreme "Didone" typefaces quickly replacing Baskerville's style has led to Baskerville being called "transitional" on the road to the Didone style which dominated printing for a long period, although Baskerville would not have considered his design "transitional" but as a successful end in itself.^[17][10]

Baskerville was revived in 1917 by Bruce Rogers, for the Harvard University Press, and released by G. Peignot et Fils in Paris (France). Modern revivals have added features, such as italics with extra or no swashes and bold weights, that were not present in Baskerville's original work.

The font is used widely in documents issued by the University of Birmingham (UK) and Castleton University (Vermont, USA).^[18] A modified version of Baskerville is also prominently used in the Canadian government's corporate identity program—namely, in the 'Canada' wordmark. Another modified version of Baskerville is used by Northeastern University (USA), and the ABRSM. Monotype Baskerville is often used by the band Chvrches.

Characteristics

Baskerville showing its key features: a nearly vertical axis of thinnest points (a), a high stroke contrast and nearly-vertical serifs which are sharp points. This compares to earlier types (below) with a diagonal axis and more wedge-shaped serifs.

Key features of Baskerville are its E where the bottom arm projects further than the upper, a J with a ball terminal at the bottom, and where the loop rises to the top and right to join the main stem and a g where the bottom loop is open. Many characters have clear ball terminals, in contrast to the more wedge-shaped serifs of earlier fonts. In italics, the J has a centre-bar, the p a tail pointing downwards and to the right and a w with a centre loop and swash on the right. In general, Baskerville's type has been described as 'rounder, more sharply cut' than its predecessors.^[19] (Some distinctive features of the capitals are discarded in many revivals, as seen below.) Baskerville's type featured text figures or lower-case numbers, the only form which was used at the time.^[6][13]

Baskerville also produced a font for Greek, which survives at Oxford.^[20] It has generally been considered as not successful.^[21][22]

Hot type versions

The following foundries offered versions of Baskerville:

• The original punches were sold by Baskerville's widow and eventually ended up in the possession of G. Peignot et Fils by way of Beaumarchais. Charles Peignot donated them to Cambridge University Press in 1953.^[23][24]
• With Baskerville's equipment unavailable in France, the Fry type foundry of Bristol cut its own version in the late eighteenth century, presumably by house designer Isaac Moore who later showcased them on his own specimen.^{[25][26][lower-alpha 1]} Moore's designs feature a slightly different 'a' at large sizes followed in many revivals.^[27]
• When Fry's successors closed, this version was acquired and issued (or possibly recut) in hot metal by Stephenson Blake under the name "Baskerville Old Face".^[28] Moore's italic was considered substandard by revivalist printers, and Baskerville Old Face revivals have tended to either synthesise their own or offer none.
• The Fry Foundry version was also sold by American Type Founders with an italic designed in 1915 by Morris Fuller Benton.
• Lanston Monotype's Baskerville was cut in 1923 under the direction of Stanley Morison. Italic and bold versions were cut by Sol Hess. These versions were modified slightly and then offered by Intertype. As with other Monotype revivals, the design is sometimes called Baskerville MT. It is bundled with OS X in a somewhat slender digitisation.^[29][30][31]
• Schriftgießerei D. Stempel issued a revival in 1926 under the name "Original-Baskerville".
• Linotype AG, the German arm of Mergenthaler Linotype, adapted the Stempel cutting of the face for linecasting in 1927.^[32]
• Linotype's Baskerville was cut in 1923 by George W. Jones, though it was subsequently re-cut in 1936. A bold version was cut by Chauncey H. Griffith in 1939. It may sometimes be called Baskerville LT.

More loosely, the Scotch Roman genre of transitional types reflects the influence of Baskerville's work, with increasing influence of Didone type from the continent around the beginning of the nineteenth century; the font Georgia is influenced by this genre. Due to the cachet of the name, other completely unrelated designs were named 'Baskerville' in the hot metal period.^[33][34]

Cold type versions

Two Baskerville revivals. The top design (Baskerville Old Style in the common Microsoft release) is more suitable for headings and that below with its thicker strokes for body text. Baskerville Old Style is based on Isaac Moore's recreation, distinguishable by the slightly different curve of its 'a'.

As it had been a standard type for many years, Baskerville was widely available in cold type. Alphatype, Autologic, Berthold, Compugraphic, Dymo, Star/Photon, Harris, Mergenthaler, MGD Graphic Systems, Varityper, Hell AG and Monotype, all sold the face under the name Baskerville, while Graphic Systems Inc. offered the face as Beaumont.^[35]

Digital versions

Baskerville revivals take a variety of approaches and the differences are often particularly visible in italic. Monotype’s, at top, favours historical accuracy and a quite light appearance, retaining the elegant swashed N, Q and T of Baskerville’s original. ITC’s uses conventional capitals, presumably to offer a more homogenous appearance.^[36] Impallari’s revival makes the same choice on a thicker structure, more suitable for use at small sizes or onscreen display where there will be no ink spread.^[37]

As a somewhat precise design that emphasises contrast between thick and thin strokes, modern designers may prefer different revivals for different text sizes, printing methods and onscreen display, since a design intended to appear elegant in large text sizes could look too spindly for body text.^[4] Factors which would be taken into account include compensation for size and ink spread, if any (the extent of which depends on printing methods and type of paper used; it does not occur on screens). Among digitisations, František Štorm's extremely complete range of versions is particularly praised for featuring three optical sizes, the text version having thicker strokes to increase legibility as metal type does.^[38][39] Meanwhile, the common digitisation of Baskerville Old Face bundled with many Microsoft products features dramatic contrasts between thin and thick strokes. This makes it most suited to headings, especially since it does not have an italic.^[40][41]

Another common question facing revivals is what to do with some letters such as 'N' in italics. On faithful revivals such as the Storm digitisation (shown at top right) they have a swash, but this may be thought too distracting for general use or to space poorly in all-caps text. Accordingly, many revivals substitute (or offer as an alternate) capitals without swashes.

Dieter Hofrichter, who assisted Günter Gerhard Lange in designing a Baskerville revival for Berthold around 1980, commented:

We went to Birmingham where we saw original prints by Baskerville. I was quite astounded by how sharp the printing of his specimens is. They are razor-sharp: it almost hurt your eyes to see them. So elegant and high-contrast! He showed in this way what he could achieve. That was Baskerville's ideal - but not necessarily right for today.^[42][43]

Many companies have provided digital releases (some of older Baskerville revivals), including Linotype, URW++, Bitstream and SoftMaker as well as many others. These may have varying features, for example some lacking small caps. Monotype Baskerville is installed on Macs as part of OS X, while many Windows computers receive Moore's adaptation under the name of Baskerville Old Face in the URW digitisation (that described above) without an italic or bold weight.

Adaptations

A particularly idiosyncratic Baskerville revival is Mrs Eaves (1996), designed by Zuzana Licko.^[44] Named after Baskerville's housekeeper-turned-wife, it uses a low x-height to create a bright page without reducing stroke width. It is often used on book titles and headings.^[45][46][47] It uses a variety of ligatures to create effects with linked characters.^[48] Harriet is an adaptation by Okaytype inspired by American nineteenth-century printing.^[49] Big Moore by Matthew Carter is a recent, complex digitisation of the larger sizes of Isaac Moore's early adaptation, that often called Baskerville Old Face, adding an italic.^{[25][27][50][51]}

Effect on readers

The 'Canada' wordmark

A research study showed that the use of the Baskerville font increased the likelihood of the reader agreeing with a statement by 1.5% as compared to the average of five other fonts, including Comic Sans which had the most negative influence on agreement of the six.^[52]

Gallery

Some examples of volumes published by Baskerville.

• 

  Title page of the 1757 quarto edition of the works of Virgil

• 

  John Milton's Paradise Lost (1758)

• 

  Volume One of The works of Joseph Addison (1761)

• 

  Title page of Baskerville's 1763 Bible

• 

  The 1766 translation of Virgil into English, by Robert Andrews

References

• Lawson, Alexander S. (1990), Anatomy of a Typeface, Boston: Godine, ISBN 0-87923-333-8 .
• Meggs, Philip B. & Carter, Rob (1993), Typographic Specimens: The Great Typefaces, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, ISBN 0-442-00758-2 
• Meggs, Philip B. & McKelvey, Roy (2000), Revival of the Fittest, New York: RC Publications, ISBN 1-883915-08-2 .
• Updike, Daniel Berkley (1980) [1922], Printing Types Their History, Forms and Use, II, New York: Dover Publications, ISBN 0-486-23929-2  - general survey of printing including of the years after Baskerville & his influence on printing. Many illustrations.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Baskerville.

• Typophile: Baskerville
• John Baskerville I Love Typography, Sep. 23, 2007
• Open Baskerville – an open-source revival of Moore's Baskerville, without an italic

macOS typefaces
Latin, Greek, Cyrillic	American Typewriter Andale Mono Arial Arial Unicode MS Athelas Avenir, Avenir Next Baskerville MT Big Caslon Bodoni 72 Bradley Hand Bold Brush Script MT Chalkboard Chalkduster Cochin Comic Sans Charter Copperplate Courier Courier New Didot DIN Euphemia UCAS Futura Geneva Georgia Gill Sans Helvetica, Helvetica Neue Herculanum Hoefler Text Iowan Old Style Impact Lucida Grande Luminari Marion Marker Felt Menlo Microsoft Sans Serif Monaco Noteworthy Optima Palatino Papyrus Phosphate Pilgiche PT Fonts San Francisco Savoye LET Seravek SignPainter Skia Snell Roundhand STIX Fonts Superclarendon Tahoma Times, Times New Roman Trattatello Trebuchet MS Verdana Zapfino Apple Chancery Apple Braille
Non-alphabetic	Apple Color Emoji Apple Symbols Symbol Webdings Zapf Dingbats
List of typefaces included with macOS