Baskerville Alternatives

John Baskerville (1706-1775) was an accomplished writing master and printer from Birmingham, England. He was the designer of several... Read More

Palatino nova is Prof. Hermann Zapf's redesign of his own masterpiece, Palatino. The original Palatino was cut in metal by August Rosenberger at D. Stempel AG typefoundry in Frankfurt, and released in 1950. Palatino was later adapted for mechanical composition on the Linotype machine, and became one of the most-used typefaces of the 20th Century. Palatino was designed for legibility, and has... Read More

Palatino Arabic is a collaboration between Lebanese designer Nadine Chahine and Prof. Hermann Zapf. The design is based on the Al-Ahram typeface designed by Zapf in 1956 but reworked and modified to fit the Palatino nova family. The design is Naskh in style but with a strong influence of the Thuluth style as well. This is evident in the swash-like finials and the wide proportions of the... Read More

The design of Sabon Next™ by Jean François Porchez, a revival of a revival, was a double challenge: to try to discern Jan Tschichold´s... Read More

John Baskerville (1706-1775) was an accomplished writing master and printer from Birmingham, England. He was the designer of several types, punchcut by John Handy, which are the basis for the fonts that bear the name Baskerville today. The excellent quality of his printing influenced such famous printers as Didot in France and Bodoni in Italy. Though he was known internationally as an innovator... Read More

In 1931, The Times of London commissioned a new text type design from Stanley Morison and the Monotype Corporation, after Morison had written an article criticizing The Times for being badly printed and typographically behind the times. The new design was supervised by Stanley Morison and drawn by Victor Lardent, an artist from the advertising department of The Times. Morison used an older... Read More

FF Celeste is a typeface for designers who like the idea of a Bodoni or Walbaum, but look for a robust and readable text face which... Read More

Xavier Dupré’s FF Absara is a work of French proportions, but its shapes take influence from the Dutch style: less polished, and more direct. Its casualness refers to humanist written forms. FF Absara’s rough cut makes it interesting at display sizes, but thanks to its generous x-height and firm serifs, FF Absara works equally well setting text. The typeface’s idiosyncratic italic creates a... Read More

Although designer Michael Gills was influenced by 18th century French type designer Pierre-Simon Fournier, Charlotte is best described as a modern roman typeface. Its clean cut style, accentuated by a strong vertical stress and unbracketed serifs, exudes an authoritative tone, guaranteeing its effectiveness for almost all text setting applications, but especially where a formal unmannered... Read More

FF Celeste is a typeface for designers who like the idea of a Bodoni or Walbaum, but look for a robust and readable text face which tempers the sobriety of romance type with friendlier Renaissance-era features. The serifs tend to the triangular and the italics harmonize well with the roman in tone and width. The letterforms are less rationalized and modular than the starkest modern faces, but... Read More

Palatino nova is Prof. Hermann Zapf's redesign of his own masterpiece, Palatino. The original Palatino was cut in metal by August Rosenberger at D. Stempel AG typefoundry in Frankfurt, and released in 1950. Palatino was later adapted for mechanical composition on the Linotype machine, and became one of the most-used typefaces of the 20th Century. Palatino was designed for legibility, and has... Read More

Gerard Unger developed Swift™ between 1984 and 1987, with the intention of making a modern digital type for newspapers. The project was undertaken for the German firm Dr.-Ing Rudolf Hell GmbH. At that time, newspapers were produced on high-speed presses with low quality paper. Unger says Swift is "designed to be a survivor." It has chunky triangular serifs, sturdy connections at junctures,... Read More

Originally drawn in 1985, Jovica Veljović had intended to add a few kerning pairs and make some minor refinements to the letterforms. However, his work lead him to take a fresh look at the family. Veljović recalls, "… I soon realized that some characters could benefit by more refined shapes and proportions. By the time I was done, I had worked on just about every character in the... Read More

Hermann Zapf's design for Aurelia is based on the forms of Jenson, an Old Style typeface developed by Nicolas Jenson in 1470 which still influences type design today. Zapf gave Aurelia a bit of his own personal style and adapted it to the demands of modern technology. Aurelia is a robust and classic font, suitable for both text and headlines. The family of typefaces was originally designed for... Read More

Xavier Dupré’s FF Yoga mixes the harshness of a blackletter with the balanced rhythm and round shapes of the Renaissance Roman. Its sturdy serifs are a good choice for body text; They also serve as an effective headline face given their subtly chiseled counters. FF Yoga Sans is a contemporary alternative to the quintessential humanist sans (Gill Sans) and a steady companion to FF Yoga... Read More

Sumner Stone worked together with Bob Ishi of Adobe to create the Stone family fonts, which appeared in 1987. Coincidentally, ishi is the... Read More

Linotype Maral is based on an historic Armenian typeface which was originally designed by Henrik Mnatsakanyan. Hrant Papazian has revieved and digitized this four weight type family . Armenian keyboard drivers for Mac OS 9 (and under) as well as for Windows are included when any of the Linotype Maral fonts are purchased. These drivers must be installed before the fonts may be used properly. ... Read More