Garamond (Adobe). Robert Slimbach, 1989 (Claude Garamond, 1495). Adobe. Garalde.
The Adobe Garamond™ font family is based upon the
typefaces first created by the famed French printer Claude Garamond in
the sixteenth century. This serif face was created by Robert Slimbach
and released by Adobe in 1989; its italics are influenced by the designs
of Garamond’s assistant, Robert Granjon.Adobe Garamond History
The renowned Parisian printer Claude Garamond was a driving force behind typeface creation during the Renaissance period
in the sixteenth century. His most famous (and inspirational) typeface
was cut early in his career for the French court – specifically King
Francis I – and was based on the handwriting of the king’s librarian,
Angelo Vergecio. The earliest use of that font was in the production of a
series of books by Robert Estienne. Robert Granjon, another very famous
influence on typography, started as an assistant to Garamond. Most
modern versions of the Garamond typeface, including the Adobe Garamond
design, base their italic type on Granjon’s lettering.
Robert Slimbach, working with Adobe, set about creating a new version
of the Garamond font family in the late 1980s. In 1989 the Adobe
Garamond design was released, much to the delight of many in the design
industry who saw the font as a very graceful interpretation of
Garamond’s original face. It came with small caps, titling caps, swash
caps and expert fonts. The font is considered an Old Style Garalde font
because of the oblique nature of the slimmest areas found in the letter
shapes.
Despite their widespread usage in the modern digital and print worlds, the Garamond fonts have a somewhat confusing past.
About sixty years after the death of Claude Garamond, another French
printer, Jean Jannon, cut a set of Garamond-like type, though the face
was noticeably more asymmetrical. Jannon’s office was summarily raided
by the French government, who discovered the font and made it the
official Royal Printing Office typeface.
French national Printing Office subsequently (circa 1825) claimed the
type was a production of Garamond. Thus, the earliest versions of the
Garamond design, produced in the 20th century (including Garamond #3 by
Morris Fuller Benton), were actually based on the Jannon font and not
the Garamond type.
The Adobe Garamond design is considered one of the most versatile
fonts available today and certainly one of the most attractive and
graceful in print. It is also one of the most eco friendly types to
print because the letterforms use less ink than other similar faces.
https://fonts.adobe.com/fonts/adobe-garamond#about-section
Specimen (Adobe Garamond Pro): https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/acom/en/products/type/pdfs/AdobeGaramondPro.pdf
Adobe Specimens: https://www.adobe.com/products/type/adobe-type-specimens.html
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