Bibliologia 7

Bibliologia 7 (2012) is finally out—and so is my article “New Types for New Books Revisited”. The article is a survey of the typefaces used by several American and British book designers, ranging in age and in temperament. It is a tribute to the late Will Powers (1943–2009) and his essay New Types for New Books: What We Have, What We Need (2006) which argued that we should use only typefaces designed for digital production and not settle for digital upgrades of typefaces originally made for foundry, Monotype, Linotype or film composition. Powers championed types such as Iowan Old Style by John Downer (Bitstream, 1990), FF Clifford by Akira Kobayashi (FontFont, 1999), Whitman by Kent Lew (Font Bureau, 2001), Chaparral by Carol Twombly (Adobe, 1997), ITC Legacy Serif by Ron Arnholm (ITC, 1992), and Miller (Font Bureau, 1997) and Monticello (Linotype, 2005) by Matthew Carter. My article is an attempt to see which faces, in addition to these, book designers are using today. It is not a definitive survey but a snapshot.

Here is a summary of what each designer suggested:
Jack Stauffacher (San Francisco)—Kis-Antiqua Now (Hildegard Korger and Erhard Kaiser, Elsner & Flake, 2009) and Cycles (Sumner Stone, Stone Typefoundry, 1993–2004).
John D. Berry (Seattle)—FF Clifford, Miller, Cycles, Minion (Robert Slimbach, Adobe, 1992), FF Quadraat (Fred Smeijers, FontFont, 1992), Swift (Gerard Unger, Hell, 1987), and Kingfisher (Jeremy Tankard, Jeremy Tankard Typography, 2009).
Mark Argetsinger (Rochester, New York)—CC Galliard (Matthew Carter, Carter & Cone, 1993), Big Caslon (Matthew Carter, Carter & Cone, 1994), DTL Vandenkeere (Dutch Type Library, 1995), DTL Elzevir (Gerard Daniels, Dutch Type Library, 1993), DTL Fleischmann (Erhard Kaiser, Dutch Type Library, 1994).
Kent Lew (Washington, Massachusetts)—Whitman, Vectora (Adrian Frutiger, Linotype), Avenir (Adrian Frutiger, Linotype), Gotham (Tobias Frere-Jones, Hoefler & Frere-Jones) and Benton Sans (Font Bureau).
Scott-Martin Kosofsky (Lexington, Massachusetts)—Chaparral, ITC Legacy Serif (roman only), Miller, Arno Pro (Robert Slimbach, Adobe, 2007), MvB Verdigris (Mark van Bronkhorst, MvB Fonts, 2003), Renard (Fred Smeijers, TEFF. 1992), Custodia (Fred Smeijers, OurType, 2002), Merlo (Mario Feliciano, Feliciano Type Foundry, 2004), Rongel (Mario Feliciano, Feliciano Type Foundry, 2001–2004), Mercury (Jonathan Hoefler, Hoefler & Frere-Jones, 2005), Baskerville Original (Frantisek Storm, Storm Type Foundry, 2008), Walbaum 2010 Pro (Frantisek Storm, Storm Type Foundry, 2010), Documenta (Frank Blokland, Dutch Type Library, 1993), and Cronos (Robert Slimbach, Adobe, 1996).
Charles Nix (New York City)—Rawlinson 2.0 (James Montalbano, Terminal Design, 2003), Kinney (James Montalbano, Terminal Design, 2011), Clearview Text (James Montalbano, Terminal Design, 2004), Giacomo 2.0 (James Montalbano, Terminal Design, 2011).
Ron Costley (London)—Minion and Utopia (Robert Slimbach, Adobe, 1989).

These designers also suggested several typefaces which they found intriguing but had not yet used: DF Rialto (Giovanni de Faccio and Lui Karner), Lyon (Kai Bernau), Versa and Versa Sans (Peter Verheul), Foundry Wilson (Freda Sack and David Quay), Skolar (David Brezina), ITC Quay Sans (David Quay), FF Profile (Martin Wenzel), and Priva Pro (Dino de los Santos).

Bibliologia is an Italian journal devoted to bibliography, library science, history of typography and the book. It is edited by Giorgio Montecchi, but number 7 has been guest-edited by James Clough of Milano.  In addition to my article there are several other articles worth noting: “I romani di Francesco Griffo” by Riccardo Olocco, “Il manuale di scrittura fra Cinquecento e prima metà dell’Ottocento” by Francesco Ascoli, “1925–1945: l’alba dei caratteri scritti moderni” by Riccardo De Franceschi, and “The Burgert Handpresse” by Ewan Clayton. Unfortunately, the articles by Olocco, Ascoli and De Franceschi are in Italian. Olocco’s article is a detailed examination with macro-photographs of the typefaces of Francesco Griffo, the Bolognese punchcutter famous for the types he made for the Venetian publisher Aldus Manutius that, in the 20th century, became the basis for Poliphilus and Bembo. Even more unfortunately, Bibliologia is, like its English counterpart Matrix, very expensive. This is a shame since the material in it deserves wider exposure. Perhaps someone will produce an English language version of Olocco’s research.