Typophile

Garamond Through History

Andrew Pautler

I am working on a project about the typeface Garamond. It's history, different, versions, and uses today. I was wondering if any one has good examples of products, companies, or anything else that used any version of Garamond both contemporary and all the way back through history to its orgin with Claude Garamond/Jean Jannon. Specific examples of Adobe Garamond in use today would be really helpful as well.

Also any good books/sites people know about for information about Claude Garamond or any versions of Garamond would be awesome. Thanks for the help.

My university (the University of St. Thomas) is one of many that uses Garamond in its "graphic identity".

To begin with, it might be a good idea to write Claude Garamont, with a T at the end.

Now, what exactly are you looking for as an information about garamont? i have a lot of info and docs, but at first let me know what you already know.

dr

Alright. I will look into more information for Garamont. The information I have now is a pretty complete biography for Garamond himself, a few examples of his work, characteristics of the typeface, and some other various information about the face.

One thing that I am specifically looking for now is relatively high quality images (just higher than on screen) of work that used Garamond's typefaces back in the 16th-18th century when his typefaces were really popular in Europe. Modern examples (like Apple or Abercombie's use of Garamond) are also needed.

Really I will take any information you have and then I can go through it and just ignore any information that I happen to already have

hello again,

i have 3 images quite high res i can send you: a page from an anatomy book published by simon de colines in 1546, the opening page of the complete works of Moliere published by Thomas Jolly in 1666, the egenolff-berner specimen and a vintage portrait of Garamont. if you are interested, send me an email (davidrault(a)gmail.com), i'll send you the docs.

dr

ITC Garamond was really hot for identities in the 1990s, you can find plenty of old images of Apple stuff that used it in old design annuals.

OSHA uses Sabon in it’s identity. I know this because the people behind that awful identity did a book about their identity programs, and made a big point out of switching OSHA from ITC Garamond to Sabon. It’s sort of good for a laugh, I guess.

Don't forget the problems inherent with a state-mandated religion. Mix that with police, Jean Jannon, & the foibles of public records. Or were you just interested in Garamont Garamond?

I did an essay about the history of the Garamond types. I posted my bibliography in another thread related to this topic. Find it here.

Nobody's done more productive research on the work of Jannon in the "Garamond" tradition than Storm Foundry, as seen in their Jannon variations, from the most antique to the carefully adapted moderne for today's book text. Take a look. The MyFonts samples have meaty explanatory text.

also, there are nice photos of original punches by garamont himself on the antwerp plantin moretus museum web site.

dr

There's also a very good discussion of modern Garamonds, complete with visuals, at

http://barneycarroll.com/garamond.htm

Here's a lovely sample from Claude Garamond's (spelled with a d) Wikipedia page:

What is the italic m doing in there? And how was it put there ... on handset type it would have been mortised in. (Or did someone mess up on the scanning/Photoshopping of it)/

I'm guessing it was handwritten notation, for whatever reason, on the original copy.

Adobe continues to use Adobe Garamond in much of its product packaging.

Captured from web.archive.org on 3 Jan 2012. view this capture