Famous for:
The definitive English 'transitional' typeface.
Applications: Book Publishing & General Purpose Text Setting
Ubiquity:
Very widely used
Category:
Transitional Roman
Stress: Vertical
Serif: Transitional
Date: 1754
Designer:
John Baskerville / John Handy
Foundry:
Baskerville founder and printer
Location:
Birmingham, England
Current equivalent:
Baskerville
See also:
Baskerville Ten, John Baskerville by Frantisek Storm, Baskerville 1757 by Lars Bergquist
Technologies:
Metal (foundry)
Metal (machine)
Photosetting
Postscript
Opentype
Design history:
Baskerville's roman was a radical departure from the oldstyle of Caslon, then dominant in English typesetting. The eccentric, free-thinking John Baskerville used his prior experience as writing master, gun engraver and industrial japanner, to create a type with finer balance, near-vertical stress and graceful stroke contrast. Working on calendered smooth paper with denser, blacker ink, Baskerville also improved the mechanical presswork to achieve finer tolerances. Said by some to be 'dazzling' when read, Baskerville's work met with acclaim abroad, influencing master printers such as Didot and Bodoni, but it was not well received in his own country or in his own lifetime.
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