![]() Late in the fifteenth century, Aldus published a relatively insignificant essay by the Italian scholar Pietro Bembo. Many printers established businesses in Venice at this time the most significant of these was Aldus Manutius, the first of the great scholar-printers. The story begins in fifteenth-century Venice, an important European typographic center. ![]() REVIVING A REVIVALMonotype’s Bembo is a double revival. In addition, the OpenType fonts of P22 Civilité have a large offering of alternate and swash characters. Because many of the original forms were archaic, there are two parts to the Civilité suite of fonts: Historical for the antiquated characters and Modern, which contains revised versions of the odd and confusing older letterforms. Their source materials for the design were a 1908 publication printed from type that was cast from matrices struck from original Civilité punches, a 1926 specimen showing of the same fonts and a 1978 English translation by Harry Carter that was printed with type cast from the same punches. Kegler collaborated with Colin Kahn and Milo Kowalski to create P22 Civilité. The typeface became known as caractères de civilité due to its use in a popular book that taught children how to read, write and behave in polite society. The original Civilité design dates back to the sixteenth century, when Robert Granjon cut punches for a font based on a style of French handwriting. P22 Civilité, an elegant yet eccentric replication. According to Richard Kegler, co-founder, principal and the typographic soul of P22, “We chose to represent the font as accurately as possible, although the design was not distressed in an attempt to create a feeling of ‘oldness.’ We wanted to represent Civilité as it might have been seen by its originators: as an imitation of French handwriting-not perfect, but human-both elegant and quirky.” GALLIC CHARMP22 Civilité is a tempered typographic replication. The third grew out of a custom font project, and the fourth corrects the wrongs that an earlier technology necessitated. One design recreates the beauty of a sixteenth-century French script. Typeface interpretations are comparable to what Seiji Ozawa creates when he conducts Beethoven.įour brand-new “old” designs have recently joined the ranks of the revivals. Interpretations take an older typeface and add to it by updating the design, correcting the limitations imposed by earlier technologies or by incorporating the essence of one or more designs into something entirely new. Typeface interpretations, on the other hand, are either new renditions of older designs or are new designs inspired by previous work. Replications are the typographic equivalent of classical music played on period instruments. In essence, they try to capture the character, warmth and idiosyncrasies of the font as it was seen by readers of its time. ![]() Replications strive to duplicate the look and feel of a typeface as it was originally used. THE FLAVORS OF RESTORATIONThere are essentially two kinds of typeface revivals: replications and interpretations. For better or worse, type designers have been creating revivals virtually since fonts of moveable type were invented. Those less in favor of reinterpreting old designs will argue that most revivals are lifeless clones just trying to make a buck off a good name. Proponents will tell you that they preserve the rich heritage and tradition of the typographic arts and enable graphic communicators to take advantage of the best typefaces from earlier days. Maybe Frederic Goudy was right when he said, “The old guys stole all our good ideas.”ĭIVIDED VIEWSThe design community has always been polarized when it comes to the topic of typeface revivals. Retro showcard display designs, modern interpretations of classic typefaces and virtual replications of antique fonts: There are more typeface revivals available to graphic designers today than ever before.
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