Adobe Caslon is still seeing use in novels, albeit not as much as it did in the 1990s. Walk through a big bookstore and pull Knopf books (Knopf does colophons) and see which of the Knopf designers is using Calon.

Up until recently Carter's Big Caslon was all over Wallpaper magazine, and I _think_ it's still used there, but not a prominently.

>Where is Caslon today?

http://typefoundry.blogspot.com/2007/12/caslon-tomb-at-st-lukes-old-stre...

From about 1967 to about 1988, Caslon Medium was the signage font used by GO Transit at Toronto's Union Station (& only @ Union Station - I guess somebody couldn't find it in his heart to to use Helvetica in a beaux art building)

I might have some photos. You can email me at russellm(at)ourhousegraphics.com

-=®=-

Everyone keeps asking Bill Berkson the same question :-)

ChrisL

Last time I checked, both Audubon magazine and The New Yorker were using Adobe Caslon as their primary serif text face for body copy.

-- Kent.

Many thanks for the replies.

I spent well over an hour the other day scouring for colophons in a book shop, and only found one use of Caslon in my entire time there! The Knopf tip will be very useful for me next time!

John, if you're right about Wallpaper then that sounds like the perfect example for me, I'll have to pick up the latest copy and track it down, *fingers crossed*

Haha, didn't see the tomb answer coming.

The union station thing sounds very interesting. Signage! I'll email you right away, thanks.

Edit: Just spotted your reply, Kent. I'll check those magazines out for sure, thanks a lot.

Go here:

http://typefoundry.blogspot.com/2009/01/recasting-caslon-old-face.html

for lots more on Caslon, including the question "(Where are they, by the way?)" and including ideas about Caslon itself being a "brand."

fascinating stuff.

powers

Caslon is used by many Harvard University publications, including Big Caslon as the banner face of the college student newspaper, and also in correspondences.

http://typophile.com/node/51974

I used Adobe Caslon in a poetrybook I designed, published in 2006.

I use it whenever I have doubts.
_____________________________________________
Personal Art and Design Portal of Ivan Gulkov
www.ivangdesign.com

I think you don't see so much Caslon in text because Adobe Caslon isn't distinctive enough to be the separate "brand"--it doesn't capture the magic of the metal text Caslons. It's a very good typeface, but others are rivals in the same space and beat it out.

Still other digital Caslons look too 'antique', and a number are too light. I hope you'll see Caslon done justice, with something that is modern, but captures the magic of metal Caslons--soon :)

The magazine Foreign Affairs uses Adobe Caslon for body text and Big Caslon for titles.

Big Caslon is used by the East Valley Tribune (Arizona) and Orange County Register (California) newspapers.

It was also used on the cover of the book The Abs Diet from the editors of Men's Health.

uhhhh.

I got the fonts mixed up.

Caslon, Clarendon - Clarendon, Caslon... both faces have some of the same letters in the name, and serifs and it was a long time ago…

anyone could make that mistake.

Right?
:o\

-=®=-

same thing happens to me with Bodoni and Bookman. That B is in there and then o appears twice in each name. Can't keep them straight.

powers

It's Cheltanham and Clarendon that always mix me up!

I used to mix up Arnhem and Farnham.

Just hope your doctor does not mix up tongue depressor and rubber glove :-)

ChrisL

I photographed a young man who had a suicide note from a doctor in the 1920's tattooed across his body. I'd noticed the type on his wrist peeking out from his shirt and was astounded to see well drawn typography in a recognizable typeface in a tattoo.

"It's Adobe Caslon Pro," he proudly told me and gladly agreed to pose.

http://typographyshop.com
http://kinggroupmedia.com

That is just slightly disturbing. Looks great, though.

I used to mix up Arnhem and Farnham.

Oh, and Janson and Jenson.

I don't know if you're still looking, but I just came across the The Typographic Desk Reference by Theodore Rosendorf. It is set Adobe Caslon. It looks rather nice...kind of want a copy myself.

Lisa

rather nice = really nice!

Thanks for asking about Caslon i was looking for this kind of info. It will help me on my new project.

I found this thread interesting as well.

I remember seeing one book on typography illustrate that Caslon was still useful today by showing its use in closely spaced all-caps in posters for the Leonard J. Waxdeck bird-calling contest.

I know some campuses use Caslon in some form as a typographical identity standard.

What I saw of Caslon in some metal type specimen books looked horribly dated to me, and it seemed not to resemble older books set in Caslon, being an artificially light face. Also, what seemed to me the most widely available form of Caslon was Caslon 540, which has short, stubby descenders.

Adobe Caslon may not be "distinctive", but when I took a look at it, it certainly did seem to be a real Caslon, and to avoid the pitfall of excessive stroke contrast that plagues other Caslons. And yet, I can also see how it could be mistaken for Baskerville (or some such thing) at a quick glance.

Well, looking back at this old thread I said "soon" about my revival of Caslon. It took another year and a half after my post, but here it is.

Quadribloc, I think the stroke contrast on Adobe Caslon is too great to get the letter press Caslon reading comfort and aesthetic. Its proportions are also half way to Baskerville, and I personally like Caslon's original widths in his Roman, I think the rhythm it establishes is one of the original's best features.

My detailed discussion of Adobe Caslon is in my essay Reviving Caslon on ilovetypography.com.

There are also several other recent revivals, I think partly in response to the feeling that Adobe Caslon is has its problems.

I think Adobe Caslon works better in display, and I see it more often there. The Caslon in The New Yorker is not Adobe Caslon.

My own optical sizes—"soon".

I seem to recall seeing a layout or specimen that said The Sun Never Sets on Caslon.

Does anyone else know of this?

http://bearded.com/blog/matt/2009/2/22/sun-never-sets-caslon

Funnily enough that's what I got when I searched… but no image?

Obviously this expression has come from somewhere.

I haven't heard the expression before. I think it's just a joking variation on the old expression "the sun never sets on the British Empire." Old because it does set now!

Interesting that "bearded" went for ATF Caslon 540, which is a beautiful display face. They used the original letter press, but I believe the digital version is quite good, though I haven't compared them. It is based on Caslon's larger sizes, which are quite different from the small ones. Carter's Big Caslon is also a beautiful interpretation of the very large sizes.

I think William is right about the British Empire. This was said because Caslon was in such prominent use that one could find it anywhere on the globe. You can now even say "The Sun never sets on Curlz" ;-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_empire_on_which_the_sun_never_sets

I have just found the image on p58 of Type & Typography by Phil Baines. Apparently it's a Stephenson Blake sample. Unfortunately my scanner is broken. I imagine it is from the lettering and type library at Saint Martins.

I didn't mean to hijack the thread, I just thought the expression was a good example of where people once imagined Caslon might be today.

Where is Caslon today?

Here.

LOL!

@William Berkson:
I think the stroke contrast on Adobe Caslon is too great to get the letter press Caslon reading comfort and aesthetic. Its proportions are also half way to Baskerville,

Ah, so when I looked at it and thought of Baskerville, I wasn't dreaming.

I agree with you that it has gone too far - it's recognizable as a Caslon by looking at the letterforms, but it just barely qualifies. I think that it is a highly readable typeface, eminently suitable for body copy... and one that might contain 24% lead oxide, but which avoids the iron and the cobalt... but, yes, as far as being a "Caslon", I would agree that a reasonable response would be "why bother" - and use Times Roman, Caledonia or Century Expanded instead. Baskerville or Garamond would be a definite improvement if one was looking to make one's document more unique.

If anything, though, it accords with my typographical tastes well enough that I've learned from it to "be careful what you wish for".

I would not expect anyone in his right mind to set body copy in ITC Caslon 223, as one example. I think going a bit further in the direction of Adobe Caslon than Williams Caslon does is acceptable - but going as far as Adobe Caslon did... yes, I will acknowledge that even if it only gets noticed in the typographic community, there are limits to how much inauthenticity should be accepted.

Of course, if they just hadn't put the name "Caslon" on it, the world would not be hurt by the availability of a nice readable Caslon-influenced typeface. But it probably would not have been noticed, and one can't blame businesses for being commercial.

If hardcover fiction is being published in Adobe Caslon, then it has done some good.