Claude Garamond was one of the leading type designers for his time. He was a French publisher from Paris. He came of importance in 1541 when three of his Greek typefaces were royally-ordered book series by Robert Estienne. Garamond based these typefaces off the handwriting of Angelo Vergecio as well as Henri Estienne. He is known for his typefaces, Garamond, Granjon, and Sabon. In 1621, sixty years after Garamond's death, the French printer Jean Jannon created a type with very similar attributes, though his letterforms were mostly asymmetrical, and also had a slightly different slope and axis. Garamond's letterforms convey a sense of fluidity and consistency. Some unique characteristics of the type anatomy are the small bowl of the a and the small eye of the e. Long extenders and top serifs have a downward slope. Garamond is considered to be among the most legible and readable serif typefaces for use in print (offline) applications. It has also been noted to be on of the most eco-friendly major fonts when it comes to ink usage.
Some fun facts about how Garamond and where its used today are:
The large picture books of Dr. Seuss are set in a version of Garamond.
All of the American editions of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books are set in twelve-point Adobe Garamond, except Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which is set in 11.5-point Adobe Garamond because it is longer.(I love Harry Potter and I never knew this!)
The popular Hunger Games trilogy is set in Adobe Garamond Pro, as is the Shiver trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater.
The logo of clothing company Abercrombie & Fitch uses a variation of the Garamond typeface.
As on can see Garamound is still used extensively today and for big names and companies as well.
^Garamond and Harry Potter :)
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