Cheaper Bookman Italic Swash

Reed Reibstein28 November 2006 · 21:240 votes

For my school's centennial, we're recreating the school newspaper's past nameplates, one in each new issue. The one we're up to (originally from around 1990, but I don't think we were digital at that point) uses Bookman Italic (not ITC Bookman) with some swash characters. In looking for a font online to approximate it, I've only been able to find Jukebox Type's Bookman JF, which does match it almost exactly. The problem is that the font family costs $119, which is out of my publication's price range (especially after buying Farnham and Mercury for our redesign). I was wondering if anyone knows of another digitization of Bookman that preserves the Th swash ligature and the R swashes present in the nameplate attached below. I haven't been able to find one after much searching, but maybe someone around here could help me out. Thanks very much in advance.

paul d hunt28 November 2006 · 21:310 votes

my suggestion is to roll up your sleaves and draw it yourself in illustrator.

Reed Reibstein28 November 2006 · 21:390 votes

I was thinking about that (although I'm more likely to get a better photo and clean up an autotrace of it), but I'm concerned that the swashes won't match the weight of the letters of the ITC Bookmans out there. Ultimately, I bet that it would be okay, but I figured that maybe there is someone out there who knows something I don't about the many versions of Bookman.

Stephen Coles29 November 2006 · 01:270 votes

I believe you can find these in the OpenType version of ITC Bookman Italic ($29). Contact FontShop for a sample.

Reed Reibstein29 November 2006 · 04:130 votes

Thanks for the tip, Stephen. I can't find any PDFs or samples online that show swashes in the ITC Bookman OT fonts, so I'll try to e-mail FontShop. Crossing my fingers.

gln29 November 2006 · 10:210 votes

You can find the Bookman Swash family here.
http://www.fonts.com/findfonts/detail.htm?pid=415677

I set it in ITC Bookman Light and it is very close with some tweaking. Unfortunately I do not have the swash version of ITC Bookman light

gln

Reed Reibstein29 November 2006 · 15:300 votes

You know, you're right. I think I will just get one of the ITC Bookman Swashes; I just frankly don't have the time or desire to invest this much time in making the nameplate as exact as possible. What I'll do is customize the swash R's by removing the lefthand swash, but I think I'll substitute ITC Bookman's Th lig for Bookman JF's lig (although I do prefer Bookman JF's). Thanks for all your suggestions.

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