Renaissance

ITC Legacy® was designed by American Ronald Arnholm, who was first inspired to develop the typeface when he was a graduate student at Yale. In a type history class, he studied the 1470 book by Eusebius that was printed in the roman type of Nicolas Jenson. Arnholm worked for years to create his own interpretation of the Jenson roman, and he succeeded in capturing much of its beauty and... Read More

Poetica font was designed by Robert Slimbach in 1992 with particularly generous characters. The typeface family consists of 21 weights to allow for an unusual variety of design possibilities within one typeface family. Numerous swash letters, ornaments and ligatures remind one of the early Renaissance and its unforgettable masters, for example, Giambattista Palatino, who later gave his name... Read More

Aquinas was designed by David Quay in 1989. It is distinguished by the contrast between its upright, generous capitals and its narrow, slanted lower case letters which look almost like italics. The combination of these so different alphabets creates an opportunity to give texts an unusual yet elegant look. Aquinas is suitable for both running text and headlines and should be used in point... Read More

Zapf Chancery font is a work of German designer Hermann Zapf. It was named after a typeface used in Anglo-Saxon lands during the Renaissance as well as inspired by such scripts. This font makes it possible to give printed items an individual character. The handwriting of the designer can be seen in the forms of this classic, elegant font.

Named for the Renaissance Medici family of Florence and designed by Hermann Zapf for Linotype in 1974, Medici is a calligraphic font that simulates the look of a broad-edged pen on rough paper. It is considered a precursor to Zapf's work for the ITC Zapf Chancery series.

ITC Golden Type® is a revival of a typeface designed in the late nineteenth century by William Morris, who was a great Victorian designer, poet, artist, craftsman, social reformer, and printer. In his search for a solid and pure letterform to use in his private press editions, he was inspired by the roman types in books printed by Nicolas Jenson in the fifteenth century. The type he designed,... Read More

Monotype Bembo is generally regarded as one of the most handsome revivals of Aldus Manutius' 15th century roman type, but the original had no italic counterpart. The story is told that Stanley Morison commissioned Alfred Fairbank, a renowned calligrapher, to create the first italic for Bembo, which was released as metal fonts in 1929. Alfred Fairbank, however, claimed that he drew the design as... Read More

Blado is the name given to the italic of Poliphilus. At the time when Francesco Griffo cut the roman that was used as the basis for Poliphilus, the practice of making an accompanying italic had not arisen. The italic that he cut later for Aldus Manutius was not considered suitable as an italic for Monotype's Poliphilus. A design by the calligrapher Ludovico degli Arrighi was selected,... Read More

Griffo Classico™ was produced by Franko Luin in 1993. It is a revival inspired by the types cut by Francesco Griffo for the Venetian printer Aldus Manutius at the end of the fifteenth century. The roman is based on the type Griffo cut in 1496 for Bembo's "de Aetna," and the italic on a type he cut in 1501 for an edition of Virgil. Griffo did not make separate italic caps, so Luin designed his... Read More

In 1458, Charles VII sent the Frenchman Nicolas Jenson to learn the craft of movable type in Mainz, the city where Gutenberg was working. Jenson was supposed to return to France with his newly learned skills, but instead he traveled to Italy, as did other itinerant printers of the time. From 1468 on, he was in Venice, where he flourished as a punchcutter, printer and publisher. He was probably... Read More

Italian Old Style™ was designed by Frederic W. Goudy for the Lanston Monotype Company in the USA. Goudy was asked by Monotype to copy Cloister Oldstyle, a successful font that belonged to a competing foundry (it was designed by Morris Fuller Benton, see Cloister Open Face). Goudy refused on grounds of ethics, and instead talked Monotype into producing a new face. This he based freely on... Read More

In 1458, Charles VII sent the Frenchman Nicolas Jenson to learn the craft of movable type in Mainz, the city where Gutenberg was working. Jenson was supposed to return to France with his newly learned skills, but instead he traveled to Italy, as did other itinerant printers of the time. From 1468 on, he was in Venice, where he flourished as a punchcutter, printer and publisher. He was probably... Read More