| Date: 1788 Designer:
John Bell / Richard Austin Foundry:
Bell founder and printer / Stephenson Blake Location:
London, England Current equivalent:
MT Bell See also:
Linotype Bell. NOT to be confused with Bell Centennial or Bell Gothic
Technologies:
Metal (foundry)
Metal (machine)
Photosetting
Postscript
Opentype | | Famous for:
The first typeface to include 'lining' numerals. Applications: Newspaper Publishing Ubiquity:
Not widely used Category:
Transitional Roman
Stress: Angled
Serifs: Transitional | | Design History:
Prior to this point, numbers had been sized to match the lowercase with descenders and ascenders, and are now called oldstyle figures (OSF). Named after John Bell, the proprietor of 'The Oracle' newspaper, this type was mistakenly described by Stanley Morison as the 'first English Modern typeface'. Later reclassified as a transitional type, Bell's design is less severe than the French examples it was following, and anticipated the success of faces like Scotch Roman by twenty years. Available in three weights with accompanying italics, it is a pleasant (if slightly nondescript) text typeface. | |  |
