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Hello typophiles,

I am doing a set of books for an Indian artist who practised between 1940’s to 1970’s, recording the events of the country through its independence, and its people in strong b/w drawings and etchings. The books are heavy on text - the main one infact runs into 40,000 words.

I am looking for body text fonts that may have a ‘period’ feel about them, while being very very readable. While Mrs Eames looks like a good choice, I am debating whether it is readable enough for this amount of text. Baskerville, Garamon and Veljovic are others that I am considering.

While on the topic, what body sans serifs would you use for a book with such extensive text.

Thanks in advance
Typefreak

unknown

Janson Text is a nice one, very easy on the eye, and you could of course try good old Caslon.

unknown

DELICATO, ANZIANO and TAROCCO are all made for longer body copy and have a “classic” look in different ways.

See them all here; http://www.macrhino.com

To answer your other question regarding San Serif. I would never use for such long body copy.

unknown

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/storm/baskerville-ten/

This Baskerville is designed for text under 10 points
Tim

unknown

Try Paperback from House Industries.

http://www.houseind.com/

unknown

Here’s a sample of a book about Delacroix set in veljovic:

http://assets.cambridge.org/052182/8295/sample/0521828295ws.pdf

About Henry James, set in Baskerville:

http://assets.cambridge.org/052181/1694/excerpt/0521811694_excerpt.pdf

You can look for other samples

unknown

Maybe one more:

A book about Piero set in Fairfield (hmmm):
http://www.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam033/2001043485.pdf

unknown

The ‘strong drawings and etchings’ made me think of Quadraat, which will work well at small sizes and has a dark and ‘modelled’ look that may go well with strong b/w drawings.

unknown

A book about Greuze, set in Quadraat: http://assets.cambridge.org/052155/5086/excerpt/0521555086_excerpt.pdf

unknown

While the era is Commonwealth, rather than Empire, I suspect that the British Monotype faces such as Imprint, Plantin, Perpetua, Times, and Gill would have been most prominent for text work in India at that time. And of course Baskerville—but you would want to use a digital version that gives a substantial impression. Plantin would be an interesting choice, it’s strong.

unknown

Plantin: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam041/2003048478.pdf

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