Antiqua (typeface class)

Antiqua (Latin antiquus " old, erstwhile " ) referred to in a general sense fonts with rounded arches, which are based on the Latin alphabet and originally referred to models of Roman antiquity. Roman typefaces and their mixed forms are now the most commonly used printing and writing fonts for Western languages.

In the strict sense is understood Antiqua also serif as opposed to sans-serif "Linear - Antiqua", the sans serif fonts. Your face which also based on the Latin alphabet blackletter.

History

The Antiqua formed in the epoch of humanism (15th century) in Italy as first handwritten book face out. The term Antiqua is based on a mistake. The humanists of the Renaissance knew the ancient texts only in the form of manuscripts, which were written in Carolingian minuscule, and hypothesized that this came as Capitalis from antiquity. Therefore, they wrote in the derived from the Carolingian minuscule humanistic minuscule, which they combined with the capitals of the Roman Capitalis monumentalis. From these two then the first renaissance roman typefaces emerged.

The use of Antiqua in Europe

Adolf Rusch cars in 1464 the first known roman letters. After the German Konrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz who were active in Subiaco, near Rome ( 1465), cut oratore an early form of Antiqua for an edition of Cicero's De. This was still very strongly attached to the Gothic tradition and not significantly different from the Gotico - Antiqua. 1469 Johann and Wendelin developed since Spira, originally from Speyer, but active in Venice, a more formal form of Antiqua. This was used for printing the Epistulae ad familiares of Cicero. Thanks to this font Venice was offered the main center for the Antiqua.

The first qualitatively convincing Antiqua developed, who lives in Venice Frenchman Nicolas Jenson 1470th The features of this script were the coming out of the tradition of handwriting slanting upward slash the minuscule e, as well as the upper endings of the majuscule M. She had some similarities with of the manuscript (eg the retention of abbreviations and ligatures ), but without wishing to imitate this. This style was imitated throughout Italy, and remained until the development of Aldus Manutius by the type most commonly used in the country.

With the pressure of Pietro Bembo's De Aetna in 1495 by Aldus Manutius a new form of Antiqua was born. This writing away more than the Type Jenson from the handwritten document and was very influenced in shaping the capitals of the Roman inscriptions. Another feature of this specification is the contrast between stronger and finer strokes.

The humanistic cursive was also rezipiert in Venice shortly before 1500 as a reference. 1501 published a book in a Antiqua Italic Aldus Manutius in Venice; this font was named Virgil. With this type Aldus Manutius began an inexpensive edition of classics, the so-called Aldine. For this project, a space-saving type of contemporary Antiqua was necessary, and that came with the Antiqua Italic. This style became known beyond the borders of Italy.

Until then, Venice, and so Italy had been the center of the new roman document development of the Renaissance. After the political subdivision of Italy but France was the new center. The French writer Claude Garamond Schneider developed the perfect Antiqua font of the Renaissance. It was characterized by a greater emphasis on rich basic and fine hairlines and looked brighter than the previous scriptures. A particular account of the work was to a small hallmark of e, which tended in the upper part of the curve to the right and on the other, that each type had a different axis position. Claude Garamond played a significant role in the development of Antiqua Italic. The special feature was that Garamond Antiqua Font simultaneously and produced as a display typeface the appropriate italics. The font Garamond types were then used by many printers in the 16th century not only in France, but they spread in Antwerp, Basel and Frankfurt. This success was also based on the change in the overall concept of the book.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, a new impetus from the Netherlands came: for example, by Dirk and Bartholomeus Vosken from Amsterdam or Johann Michael Fleischmann and Christoffel van Dyck from Haarlem. The differences between this document and the Garamond were, inter alia, in the major hallmark of e, n in the height of the minuscule, they became larger and more refined serifs. While the capitals barely have a sloping characteristic style, can be seen in the lowercase letters still clearly their origin from the written to the spring humanist handwriting.

Due to the increased use of copper engraving in the design of the font since the 17th century even stronger contrasts of strokes could be created. Until the mid- 18th century, the fonts from the Netherlands were imported, then they began to reshape its own. The Dutch font innovations also influenced the development of the English continent.

The further developed in England Antiqua font has a softer typeface and the capitals are wider compared to the Dutch types. William Caslon is one of the main representatives of the English writing skills. It was based on the writings of van Dyck, but put in the new design less emphasis on the formation of the letters and more to the effect of the entire typeface. However, the most important position in England takes a John Baskerville: The types that he developed, are assigned to the Baroque and very readable. The typeface looks wider, the letters show strong contrasts of line widths on the capitals have greatly emphasized serifs, the small letters have oblique paintings and the font axis is almost always vertical.

At the time of Louis XIV, France was the leading country for the type design. When the Imprimerie Royale was established, they wanted to develop a new font that could not be used by any print: This font was named " Romain du Roi " and was designed exclusively for the royal printing house. It was with her to the first type in the Baroque style, which was based on a mathematical calculation and a detailed design plan. The " Romain du Roi " in 1702 used for the printing of " Médailles sur les principeaux évènements you règne de Louis le Grand ". The characteristics are a consistent vertical shaped shadow axis and serifs without a strong groove. Despite the prohibition of imitation of this type it very influenced the development of typography in France. Pierre Simon Fournier developed in 1737 a replica of this document.

As the successor of François Ambroise Didot came Fournier ( 1730-1804 ). This new development is characterized by an increased contrast between the strokes and fine lines, the hair lines of the hatches are even more tender. Did Gutenberg still the greatest possible similarity between documents and manuscripts, so now was the engraving more and more input into the design of the font. The documents should now look like engraving. For the uppercase and lowercase letters which now was subject to the same principles in this classical form of Antiqua.

Giambattista Bodoni completed this classical writing in Italy. He was based in the beginning strongly on the type Fournier, until he published in 1791 " Q.Honoratii Flacci Opera " and then used a typeface that had its own coinage. Having delved into the classical art scene, he developed a font with a specific structure, which greatly moved away from the manuscript tradition. The typeface is characterized by the contrast of the different weights, the serifs are thin and are lifting of the stems from.

The Antiqua in Germany

The serif fonts Venice spread to Italy, Germany, France and Spain. Until 1480 it was in Germany only ten Antiqua types; with an interest in humanism also increased the use of these fonts. The first to use a roman font in German-speaking region, Adolf Rusch was.

The printer and publisher Johann Amerbach from Basel spread the serif fonts in Germany and in Switzerland with the pressure of, inter alia, scholastic texts, dictionaries and bibles. He had 6 Antiqua types. Basel became the center of production of serif fonts north of the Alps, but also in Augsburg and Nuremberg in the serif fonts were used.

1525 began also theoretically to deal with the Antiqua. Albrecht Duerer wrote " Underweysung the measurement with the Zirckel and richtscheyt ," the first German -language book on the construction of roman letters. Earlier theoretical guidance for the design of Antiqua had already come out in Italy: these books dealt solely with the capitals that were already formed geometrically by their origin from the Roman inscriptions. The small letters of the roman came, however, from the manuscript tradition. All of these publications dealt much with the geometrical structure of the letters without however to treat the visual impact. Important representatives of the serif fonts were the printer Johann Froben or font foundry Egelnolff Luther (17th century).

At the beginning of the 16th century, the black letters were mainly used in letterpress printing. Italy was the first country where the Antiqua types found more general use. After France and Spain followed (first half of 16th century ), England ( 1700 ), Sweden and the Netherlands ( in the 18th century).

Germany played a special role in this typographic tradition. Johannes Gutenberg developed the first German typeface that Textura, a blackletter typeface. About the Schwabacher they evolved into the fracture, which was used in Germany to 1941 in addition to the use as Antiqua font. Unlike other countries which have increasingly resorted to the roman typeface, it was used in Germany in the course of the 19th century, reinforced ( → Antiqua - Fraktur dispute ).

Outline of serif fonts

The roman typefaces are divided according to their date, and different design elements. As usual, if somewhat outdated structure applies to the German-speaking DIN 16518th

  • Group I: Venetian Renaissance Antiqua
  • Group II: French Renaissance Antiqua
  • Group III: Baroque Antiqua
  • Group IV: Neoclassical Antiqua
  • Group V: slab serif
  • Group VI: Sans serif linear antiqua
  • Group VII: Rare variants
  • Group VIII: Script Fonts
  • Group IX: Handwritten Antiqua
  • Group X: Broken fonts
  • Group XI: Foreign fonts
  • Examples

Serif Garamond as an example of a French Renaissance - Antiqua (Group II )

Serif Adobe Caslon as an example of Baroque Roman type ( group III)

Serif of the Bauer Bodoni as an example of a classical Antiqua (Group IV)

Serif Clarendon as an example of a slab serif (Group V)

Serif of Helvetica as an example of a sans serif linear antiqua (Group VI)

Serif Optima as an example of roman variants ( group VII)

Serif Mistral as an example of script fonts (Group VIII)

Serif of the Post-Antiqua as an example of Handwritten Antiqua (Group IX)

69734
de