Typeface Review: "Sabon"

What It Looks Like:

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It's History: "Sabon is an old style serif typeface designed by Jan Tschichold between 1964 and 1967. It was released jointly by Linotype, Monotype, and Stempel foundries in 1967. It’s based on typefaces designed by Claude Garamond, particularly the one printed by Konrad Berner of Frankfurt, as well as the italics by Robert Grandjon." (Source #1)

"One of the finest modern adaptations of the Garamond model, Jan Tschichold's Sabon stands as the culmination of a hugely influential typographic career in which type design developed alongside book typography and critical writing.

"It is names for the punchcutter and type founder Jakob Sabon of Lyons, who is credited with bringing the Garamond types originating with Plantin or Granjon into use in Franfurt, thus introducing the Garamond model into German printing. Sabon is, however, far more than a literal revival, since it incorporates characteristics drawn from the different sizes of the Garamonds to form one consistent and definitively 20th-century interpretation of the ideas that they embody." (Source #2)

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What Type of Font It Is: Garalde - "Garaldes include some of the most attractive and well-designed text faces in current use. They are highly legible but visually lively. As with most historically based faces, the adaptation of these letters for changing print technologies has had varying effects upon their integrity of form.

"All typefaces originating in hand-cut punches showed a considerable variation of form according to size, with the serifs relatively heavier and the modulation of stroke width less pronounced at smaller sizes. These considerations are crucial to the effective design or adaptation of Garalde faces, and distinguish quality recuts and original faces in the Garalde tradition." (Source #3)

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How You Can Design With It: "One of the distinguishing features of Sabon is that the roman, italic, and bold weights all take up the same width when typeset. It’s an unusual feature, but meant that only one set of copyfitting data is needed for all three styles.

"Sabon is a highly legible typeface, with moderate contrast between thick and thin strokes. That makes it suitable for use in a variety of sizes.

"Sabon is a favorite for typesetting book copy, and is well-suited to any traditional or formal design." (Source #1)

"It has an elegant bold font, and it is exceptionally balanced and legible across italic and roman in both its weights. It has a harmonious visual consistency and few obtrusive distinguishing features - an inclined stress, open counters, and a complementary interaction between characters. It incorporates expert set features, including small caps, ligatures, and non-lining numerals." (Source #2)

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Where You Can Get It: You can buy the Sabon font and the whole font family at LinoType, Adobe, Fonts.com, FontShop, MyFonts, or Webtype.

Descriptive Terms for It: Book copy, Garalde, Jan Tschichold, large blocks of text, large bodies of text, legible, Old Style Serif, serif, traditional, and whole family.

Sources:
- #1 - http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2011/08/the-most-popular-fonts-used-by-designers/
- #2 - The Complete Typographer: A Manual for Designing with Type" by Will Hill, 2nd Edition, p. 76
- #3 - The Complete Typographer: A Manual for Designing with Type" by Will Hill, 2nd Edition, p. 72

Examples:

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Typeface Review: "Garamond"

What It Looks Like:

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It's History: "Garamond is an old-style serif typeface, named after punch-cutter Claude Garamond. Adobe Garamond and Stempel Garamond were both based on this original typeface from the 16th century, and Granjon and Sabon were heavily influenced by it. There are a few unique characteristics of Garamond, including the small bowl of the lowercase 'a' and the small eye of the 'e'." (Source #1)

Claude Garamond's
portrait using the font
Garamond.
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"Robert Slimbach redesigned Garamond for Adobe in 1989. "Moderate contrast, and a more rounded form and evenness of stroke than Linotype or Stempel versions, make Slimbach's one of the most readable Garamonds. It is available with swash italics, some elegant terminal letters, ornaments, and titling capitols." (Source #2)

What Type of Font It Is: Garalde - "Garaldes include some of the most attractive and well-designed text faces in current use. They are highly legible but visually lively. As with most historically based faces, the adaptation of these letters for changing print technologies has had varying effects upon their integrity of form.

"All typefaces originating in hand-cut punches showed a considerable variation of form according to size, with the serifs relatively heavier and the modulation of stroke width less pronounced at smaller sizes. These considerations are crucial to the effective design or adaptation of Garalde faces, and distinguish quality recuts and original faces in the Garalde tradition."(Source #3)

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How You Can Design With It: "Garamond’s greatest strength is its legibility and readability. Garamond is one of the most legible serif typefaces, especially for use in print applications. It’s also one of the most eco-friendly typefaces in terms of ink usage. The original punches and matrices were sold to Christopher Plantin upon the death of Claude Garamond, and were in turn used in many printers, adding to its rise in popularity. Garamond revivals were created as early as 1900. Garamond is an excellent choice for printed materials, including books and reports, due to its high legibility in print." (Source #1)

Where You Can Get It: You can buy the font at FontShop. There is also an Apple site that let's you try it out before purchasing it, located here. Or download from a range of cheaper versions of it at DaFont.

Descriptive Terms for It: Book copy, Garalde, large blocks of text, large bodies of text, legible, Old Style, Old Style Serif, readable, redesign, variety, and whole family.

Sources:
- #1 - http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2011/08/the-most-popular-fonts-used-by-designers/
- #2 - The Complete Typographer: A Manual for Designing with Type" by Will Hill, 2nd Edition, p. 80
- #3 - The Complete Typographer: A Manual for Designing with Type" by Will Hill, 2nd Edition, p. 72

Examples:

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Picture found here and also available for purchase.

Typeface Review: "Bembo"

What It Looks Like:

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It's History: "Bembo was revived by the Monotype Corporation in 1929, under the direction of Stanley Morison. The original typeface was first used in February of 1496, though, in a 60-page book about a journey to Mount Aetna, called Petri Bembi de Aetna Angelum Chalabrilem liber, written by Pietro Bembo. Francesco Griffo later cut the first italic types, for Aldus Manutius.

"Since the original typeface had no italic cut with it, it’s rumored that renowned calligrapher Alfred Fairbank was commissioned by Stanley Fairbank to create an italic for Bembo. Fairbank maintains that he created the type independently and then sold it to Monotype, but in either case, the metal type for an italic version of Bembo was released in 1929." (Source #1)

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What Type of Font Is It: "Bembo is an old style serif, based on a humanist typeface created by Francesco Griffo in the late 15th century. It has a number of characteristics of humanist typefaces, including minimal variation between the weights of thin and thick strokes; a small x-height; short, bracketed serifs; angled top serifs on lower-case letters; and ascenders that are taller than capital letters." (Source #1)

How You Can Design With It: "Bembo is considered a good classical typeface, with a strong humanist, Old Style look. It’s perfect for use in designs where classic beauty or formal tradition are important. [It] is considered a good choice for book typography." (Source #1)

Where You Can Get It: You can get it for free here:

http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/list/keyword/bembo.

Descriptive Terms For It: Old Style Serif, Garalde, book copy, classic.

Extras: A rather interesting article chastising designers for the overuse of Bembo located here, with the lovely people at ILoveTypography. Also, this excellent site featuring the font to make animals out of the letters of it's name, including sound effects: http://www.bemboszoo.com/.

Sources:
- #1 - http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2011/08/the-most-popular-fonts-used-by-designers/

Examples:

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