Are you looking for a face to accompany images of ephemera, or are you trying to replicate the style?

To accompany, as text.

Stephen, what a great site. Thanks!

Because Bulmer's design is really older, here are some other text type suggestions: Cheltenham designed in 1896-1902 by Bertram Goodhue, and refined by M.F. Benton in the next 2 years; or Golden Type, originally designed in 1892 by W. Moris. The latter has SC and OSF versions. 'Chelt' was such a widespread favorite by the early 20th century, all printers had it in their inventories, so it's a very characteristic style of that era.

(BTW, it's nice to be back from vacation, I must say).

"Antique" faces similar to Bruce Old Style were popular, as was De Vinne and Egyptian. Faces like Egyptian would often be used as a boldface for De Vinne or Bruce Old Style. Ronaldson was also popular. Unfortunately, the closest thing available to it today is Tiffany, which doesn't really have the same antique feel (unless you're talking about 1970s antiques :-). Faces like the original (non-ITC) Bookman and Cushing were common. Also Romana. I've got a children's history book from 1889 that uses Art Gothic for section headings. Jonathan Hoefler's Knockout Series would not feel out of place.

Of course, it's not just the type choices, but how you set them. I would recommend getting hold of or at least looking at books from the late 1800s to get layout ideas.

Very interesting. When I started this thread I was thinking of the fact that the client really likes Palatino, and that my art director is a Garamond no. 3 type of guy. Since that's where my head was at your suggestions initially came as a surprise. Don't get me wrong, I understand the reasoning behind your suggestions. I'm just wondering if I should be considering using an old style font for most of the text, with "period" fonts for initial caps, heads, subheads, etc. Is this a "cop out"? I'm interested in your reactions.

I'm anxious to get my hands on copies of the images, to become more familiar with the look of the material (seen briefly in a meeting yesterday). And I agree, Mark, that it would be a good idea to do some research into the books of the period. Thanks.

Palatino is from about 1950 and was inspired by Renaissance calligraphy. It's definitely not a look I would ever associate with the late nineteenth century. Similarly, Garamond's fonts were made in the 1600s and were not revived until the 1920s.

The late nineteenth century was big on "antiques," which evolved from Caslon's types, and moderns, such as De Vinne. (Caslon's original faces, which were from the 18th century, were not popular again until they were revived the early 20th century.)

Old style, in the sense usually meant today, meaning things like Bembo, Jenson, Garamond, Caslon, etc., is a very 20th-century thing. Even a lot of the moderns, like Bodoni and Dido, and transitionals, like Baskerville and Bulmer, were out of style by the late 19th century and didn't make a comeback until the 1920s. Most of the faces we call "old style" now were considered obsolete in the late 1800s.

If you look at books and other things published back then you will see what I mean.

Mark, thanks once again for sharing your knowledge. I have more questions...

Your link for Bruce Old Style actually takes me to Zinc Italian. (I can, and have, looked up Bruce Old Style on my own.) Is there anything you want to say about Zinc Italian? Is it an authentic recreation? Thanks.

FYI: Research time is nonexistent for at least the next couple of days, but I will get to it!

That's weird. I was looking at that after reading one of Stephen's comments in the Gomez thread. He referred to a thread on Typographic that had a link to Zinc, but I had to use copy and paste to follow it so it was on the clip board when I posted to this thread. I'd better stop before this turns into Typophile CSI.

I don't know much about it, but it is an authentic Victorian type style.

I was thinking of DeVinne as well. You could try Bodoni Old Face. It has an expert collection.

http://www.philsfonts.com/showing.html?sku=BQ901100X1P1&start=1

Some display fonts: Fashion Compressed, Greeting Monotone, Willow, Beton.

And you could use Woodtype Ornaments for dingbats.

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/woodtype-ornaments/

Cloister (which is often sold with De Vinne) was created in 1897. It doesn't have an expert collection though.

I'm not sure about some of those. Bodoni was from about 100 years earlier and wasn't revived until the 1920s. Beton is from 1931 and on. Cloister (assuming you mean Cloister Oldstyle) is from 1913 and was based on types from the 1470s.

This is where I got my info on Cloister.

http://www.identifont.com/show?60E

Since I don't think De Vinne has an expert collection (altho those can be created easily enough) I thought Bodoni Old Face would give a similar feel with all the trimmings (to quote Yves). Century Old Style could work too but it's from 1906.

And of course designs from the late 1800s did not necessarily use fonts specifically created in that era. My impression of VIctorian design is really of mixing disparate fonts and dingbats. There were a lot of frilly fonts used with intricate dingbats and also blockier fonts based on wood type.

There have been plenty of fonts created in the 20th century which faithfully reproduced the look of "bygone days". T-26 created the Toulouse Lautrec family in the late 90s to recreate art nouveau fonts.

Sorry, Patricia, I know I'm being very nitpicky. I just can't help it sometimes. :-)

I don't know where Identifont got 1897 from, but it's wrong. All the books I have say 1913.

I've never come across across a Century-type (Century, DeVinne, Monotype Modern, etc...) font with small caps and old style numerals. Did they originally have them?

FYI, Old Style No. 7 is similar to Bruce Old Style, plus it contains small caps and old style numerals.

-Addison

Well, Old Style No. 7 is 1902. Sorry.

Hi, me again, nice weather we're having, isn't it? You all look lovely today, is that a new shirt / blouse?

Just to make things interesting, let's say -- hypothetically, of course -- that the time period of the images is a little more extended than originaly mentioned. Like maybe the entire 19th century.

(Note to self: look before you leap; measure twice, cut once.)

I recently discovered this one from another thread--it may work nicely:

http://www.linotype.com/55992/monticello-family.html

According to American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century, all those numbered Old Style faces have their origins in the late nineteenth century, and that Old Style No. 7 was a copy of an older foundry face adapted for machine composition. So I think it would work, even though technically it was released later.

If you go earlier into the nineteenth century, you would find stuff more along the lines of Bulmer and Scotch Roman (Matthew Carter's Miller is a modern interpretation of this). Also, you start getting into "fat faces" like this and egyptians like this.

Addison: the only Century-like type I know of with SC/OSF is URW's Modern Extended�and even this only has SC/OSF for the Roman.

Nick Shinn's Worldwide also has them, but again, only in the Roman.

Traditionally, small caps were only done for roman, not italic or bold. Having them for italic and bold is a recent development.

Yeah, I was just talking about the OSF�usually the italic version of a SC/OSF set will have italic OSF, but no small caps.

Oh, also, I think Donald Knuth's Computer Modern, used most frequently for TeX, has SC/OSF sets. But there's something unsettling about that face that makes me want to never use it. Something about the 'a' really annoys me. Or maybe it's just 'cause I associate it with hardcore math and physics, which frighten me.

Since I don't think De Vinne has an expert collection (altho those can be created easily enough)"

Patricia, easy for a font designer? or for a non-font designing Quark type? How is it done?

Hi Everyone, lots of good information for me to mull here. Thank you. I would really like to use a font that has os figs, as there are a lot of dates in the copy.

Me, I just trust Mark's and Mike's first-hand experience. I wasn't there at the turn of the century...

Yves, somehow I've never had a chance to mention it but I always appreciate the comic relief. :-) And of course we know Mark is the king of font puns.

I'm tired, and will say good night. Thanks to you all.

I meant that I know someone who will create an expert collection (fractions, ligatures, superscript, some alternate characters) when I need one for $100. It would definitely not be easy for me since I don't know fontographer. Depending on the size of your job, $100 is either a lot or very little...