Adobe Garamond Pro
Regular
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Classification: Old style

Claude Garamond was an influential type designer from the 16th century, most notably known for his Roman typefaces; specifically Garamond, Granjon and Sabon. His work has been adapted in a number of ways to adhere to modern standards of use. Jean Jannon, a French printer, recreated a “Garamond” type style which had subtle differences, but was mistakenly credited to Claude Garamond for over a century. Essentially, Jannon’s work was later credited to him and was then produced in a historical context, which effectively brought attention back to French typography and the Garamond style typeface. Most modern adaptations are based on Jannon’s work due to its previous mistaken identity.

Robert Slimbach worked passionately on type and calligraphy for four years at Autologic in California prior to joining Adobe in 1987. His journey on the redesigning of the classic Garamond typeface in 1989 began by studying the historical specimens as well as travelling to Belgium to see remnants of them first hand. The basis of the re-design stemmed from the notion of not being able to find an authentic true-to the original Garamond typeface.

While the original Garamond typeface is considerably elegant and practical in its form and is legible in all font sizes, its digital counterpart – Adobe Garamond is quite thin when below 12pt. Adobe Garamond Pro pushes the envelope in terms of its practicality and is visually more accessible from 12pt. and above. Thus, the nature of its contemporary redesign still harbours a variety of possible digital and print based mediums, some of these include; newspapers, books and magazines, as well as advertising and professional institutional communications.

The fonts’ increase in legibility is determined upon its font size; at 12pt the counters and minimal stroke weight properties are starkly evident. On 36pt and above the type faces’ particularly modernistic approach to Roman typefaces is revealed on a larger scale, readability and uses for various media are abundant and apparent when considering its ability to engage a reader in its elegant strokes and its overall balance and chemistry between the negative and positive spaces. The axis on which the counters are based on provide a distinctive quality that further enhance the readability of the letters within the words.

The serifs are softly angled and the proportions sit well within the rest of the typeface. There is consistency between the slight curves and is apparent when letters are placed one after the other, a subtle flow of movement can be observed within the serifs themselves and is noticeable upon closer inspection, it further emphasises the graceful complexity of the typeface.

Glyphs have also been stylised to ensure users have a range of Old style letterforms. The glyphs that are included within the OpenType format include Old style figures, Lining figures, Titling capitals, F-ligatures, Small capitals, Swish capitals, Superiors, Inferiors, numerators and denominators, Superior Letters, Accented Glyphs, Mathematical Symbols, Ending and Alternative Glyphs, Miscellaneous and Monetary Symbols and finally, Ornaments.

References

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Slimbach, R. & Brady, F. Through the Adobe website. Retrieved July 22, 2010, from http://www.adobe.com/type/browser/pdfs/AdobeGaramondPro.pdf

Gill, E. (1993). An essay on typography. David R. Godine Publisher

Baines, P. & Haslam, A. (2005). Type and Typography, Laurence King Publishing