Classical Garamond

Classical Garamond is a font from Bitstream library. In the early sixties, the German master printers' association requested that a new typeface be designed and produced in identical form on both Linotype and Monotype machines so that text and technical composition would match. Walter Cunz at Stempel responded by commissioning Jan Tschichold to design the most faithful version of Claude Garamont's serene and classical roman yet to be cut. The boldface and particularly the italic are limited by the twin requirements of Linotype and Monotype hot metal machines. Bitstream's Cursive is a return to the form of one of Garamont's late italics, recently identified. Punches and matrices for the romans survive at the Plantin-Moretus Museum. The name refers to Jacques Sabon, who introduced Garamont's romans to Frankfurt, although the typefaces that Sabon himself cut towards the end of the sixteenth century have a faintly awkward style of their own. Elegant, Original and True-Cut Garamonds are also based directly on Garamont's work. American, English and Italian Garamonds, with French Garamont, are based on the work of Jean Jannon, an early seventeenth century French punchcutter whose work was confused with Garamont's early in this century, a mistake that was not correc ted until 1926. ITC Garamond is a distant derivative of Jannon, while Chicago Garamond can be considered an original Middleton design with little to do with Jannon or Garamont.

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