| Date: 1750 Designer:
Pierre-Simon Fournier Foundry:
Fournier founder and printer Location:
Paris, France Current equivalent:
MT Fournier
See also:
MT Barbou
Technologies:
Metal (foundry)
Postscript
Opentype |
| Famous for:
First italic to be used in its own right. Applications: Book Publishing & General Purpose Text Setting Ubiquity:
Not widely used Category:
Transitional Stress: Angled
Serifs: Oblique | | Design history:
Departing from early styles for italic, this type has increased stroke contrast and serifed lowercase characters, more like engravers lettering. Fournier was the typefounding genius of his age, creating the precursor of type families by offering related styles of a type - ordinaire, goût Hollandáis, poetique - in addition to associated typographic ornaments and flowers. Fournier's transitional type designs prefigured the work of Didot, Walbaum and Bodoni. He also established a number of important typefounding conventions, including the original point system of measurement. Fournier's own theories and opinions on type can be found in the two-volume 'Manuele Typographique' of 1768. | |  |
