+ 0080

0809_1
{
baskerville
}
type specimen book

//typography I
content

04 08
//designer //font family

06 10
//type size //leadings

2
 05
07 //the history

//alphabets

11
09 //designs

//type style

12
//poster

3
designer John Baskerville (1706-1775)

About the Designer:

Born in Worcestershire in 1706, he spent the rest of his life in
Birmingham. His masterpiece, the Holy Bible of 1763, is regarded
by many to be the finest book printed in English.
A towering figure in the history of English typography, he broke
one tradition and started another. Before Baskerville, the standard
English type of the early 18th century was Caslon - a tradition
which stretched back to Aldus Manutius of the 15th century. John
Baskerville improved existing types, ink and presses and produced
a clearer blacker type than any of his contemporaries. Unfortu-
nately, his type was severely criticised due to the thinness of the
strokes. Critics maintained that his type “hurt the eye” and would
be “responsible for blinding the nation”. It was a commercial fail-
ure and wasn’t revived until the early 20th century.
He has been called “the greatest printer England ever pro-
duced” but was very much disliked by his contemporaries. He
was regarded as nouveau-riche, provincial, and had unpopular
anti-establishment views on religion. He insisted on being buried
standing up in a special building in his garden and was thence
branded an atheist. In 1820, his body was dug up and used as a
sort of local peepshow. The curious could view it for the sum of 6
pence.
“Having been an early admirer of the beauty of Letters, I
became intensely desirous of contributing to the perfection of
them.”

Fonts designed by John Baskerville:

EF Baskerville
Baskerville (BT)
Baskerville Caps
Baskerville Classico

Baskerville No.2
ITC New Baskerville
ITC New Baskerville (EF)

4
the history Baskerville
Baskerville is a transitional serif typeface designed in 1757 by
John Baskerville (1706-1775) in Birmingham, England. Basker-
ville is classified as a transitional typeface, positioned between
the old style typefaces of William Caslon, and the modern styles
of Giambattista Bodoni and Firmin Didot.
The Baskerville typeface is the result of John Baskerville’s in-
tent to improve upon the types of William Caslon. He 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. 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 typeface was the culmination of a larger series
of experiments to improve legibility which also included paper
making and ink manufacturing. The result was a typeface that
reflected Baskerville’s ideals of perfection, where he chose sim-
plicity and quiet refinement. His background as a writing master
is evident in the distinctive swash tail on the uppercase Q and in
the cursive serifs in the Baskerville Italic. The refined feeling of
the typeface makes it an excellent choice to convey dignity and
tradition.
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 he published his master work, a folio Bible,
which was printed using his own typeface, ink, and paper.
The perfection of his work seems to have unsettled his contem-
poraries, and some claimed the stark contrasts in his printing
damaged the eyes. Abroad, however, he was much admired,
notably by Fournier, Bodoni (who intended at one point to come
to England to work under him), and Benjamin Franklin.
After falling out of use with the onset of the modern typefaces
such as Bodoni, Baskerville was revived in 1917 by Bruce Rogers,
for the Harvard University Press. In 1923, the typeface was also
revived in England by Stanley Morison for the British Mono-
type Company as part of its program of revivals. Most recently,
the Baskerville typeface was used as the basis for the Mrs Eaves
typeface in 1996, designed by Zuzana Licko.
A modified version of Baskerville is prominently used in the
Canadian government’s corporate identity program – namely, in
the ‘Canada’ wordmark.

5
type size Size: 48 pt | Leading: 48 pt

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvw
xyzABCDEFGHIJKLM-
NOPQRSTUVWXYZ$
1234567890(.,”’-;:!)?&

6
alphabets Size: 72 pt | Leading: 72 pt

abcdefghijklmno
pqrstuvwxyzAB-
CDEFGHIJKL
MNOPQRSTU-
VWXYZ$12345
67890(.,”’-;:!)?&
7
font family Size: 66 pt | Leading: 79.2 pt

baskerville regular

baskerville italic

baskerville semibold

baskerville semibold italic

baskerville bold

baskerville bold italic

8
type styles

[
In traditional typography, text is composed to create a readable, co-

herent, and visually satisfying whole that works invisibly, without the
awareness of the reader. Even distribution with a minimum of distrac-
tions and anomalies are aimed at producing clarity and transparency.
Choice of font(s) is perhaps the primary aspect of text typograph prose
fiction, non-fiction, editorial, educational, religious, scientific, spiri-
tual and commercial writing all have differing characteristics and
font size: 8pt | leading: 10pt
]
font size: 8pt | leading: 12pt
In traditional typography, text is composed to create a readable, co-
herent, and visually satisfying whole that works invisibly, without the
awareness of the reader. Even distribution with a minimum of distrac-
tions and anomalies are aimed at producing clarity and transparency.

[
Choice of font(s) is perhaps the primary aspect of text typograph prose
fiction, non-fiction, editorial, educational, religious, scientific, spiri-
In traditional typography, text is composed to create a readable,

coherent, and visually satisfying whole that works invisibly,
without the awareness of the reader. Even distribution with a
minimum of distractions and anomalies are aimed at produc-
ing clarity and transparency. Choice of font(s) is perhaps the
primary aspect of text typograph prose fiction, non-fiction,
editorial, educational, religious, scientific, spiritual and com-
| leading: 10pt
font size: 9pt
]
| leading: 12pt
font size: 9pt
In traditional typography, text is composed to create a readable,
coherent, and visually satisfying whole that works invisibly,
without the awareness of the reader. Even distribution with a
minimum of distractions and anomalies are aimed at produc-

[
ing clarity and transparency. Choice of font(s) is perhaps the
primary aspect of text typograph prose fiction, non-fiction,
In traditional typography, text is composed to create

a readable, coherent, and visually satisfying whole that
works invisibly, without the awareness of the reader.
Even distribution with a minimum of distractions and
anomalies are aimed at producing clarity and transpar-
ency. Choice of font(s) is perhaps the primary aspect of
text typograph prose fiction, non-fiction, editorial, edu-
font size: 10pt | leading: 10pt
]
font size: 10pt | leading: 12pt
In traditional typography, text is composed to create
a readable, coherent, and visually satisfying whole that
works invisibly, without the awareness of the reader.
Even distribution with a minimum of distractions and
anomalies are aimed at producing clarity and transpar-

[
ency. Choice of font(s) is perhaps the primary aspect of
In traditional typography, text is composed to

create a readable, coherent, and visually satisfying
whole that works invisibly, without the aware-
ness of the reader. Even distribution with a min-
imum of distractions and anomalies are aimed
at producing clarity and transparency. Choice
of font(s) is perhaps the primary aspect of text
| leading: 10pt
font size: 12pt
]
font size: 12pt | leading: 12pt
In traditional typography, text is composed to
create a readable, cohere nt, and visually sat-
isfying whole that works invisibly, without the
awareness of the reader. Even distribution with
a minimum of distractions and anomalies are
aimed at producing clarity and transparency.

9
leading Typographics Anatomy

MagxyQipz
ascender

cap x-height
height

descender

text baselineLine spacing in

traditional typog-
raphy is called
“leading”, and
is measured be-
35 points
{tween baselines.
10
Q£
designs Negatives

kx Gg 11
//poster

BASKERVILLE
//Che Geuvara