The Garamond typeface is named after Claude Garamond, an engraver who lived in Paris during the 1500s. He created a roman typeface but wasn't interested in italics. A contemporary of Garamond's, Robert Granjon, specialized in italics and his italics are often combined with Garamond's roman glyphs into a single typeface. Garmond's typeface fell out of favor during the 1700s and 1800s. Meanwhile, in the 1600s another engraver, Jean Jannon, produced a typeface with some similarities to Garamond's. In the early 1900s there was a renewed interested in 'old style' French typefaces. Several type foundries produced typefaces that they claimed were based on Garamond's original roman type. Modern research, however, has established that many of these are actually based on Jannon's work, not Garamond's. Monotype's Garmond is actually based on Jannon's type.[1] I actually don't mind Monotype Garamond's roman (regular) typeface [2], but I really, really dislike the italic setting.
Here is the basic alphabet, showing both lowercase and uppercase glyphs. What drives me crazy is that the slope (also called the angle or slant) of the letters is inconsistent. Here, let me show you:
I've taken the lowercase l and the uppercase I (both in red) and positioned them behind the rest of the letters so that you can see how much the slant varies from letter to letter. As you can see the b and the f are closer to being vertical than the l is, but the k and the m are even further away. The same is true for the capital letters: the B and the F are closer to being vertical than the I is (even worse, the E and the F, which should look nearly identical, don't even have the same slope!), while the K and the S are further away. (The most egregious example, though, is the R.)
The same problem can be seen by comparing O or o (both in red) with Q or q. Ugh. It's just so hideous.
What first brought this terrible typeface to my attention was the difference in slope between uppercase and lowercase letters—it's even worse than the disparity among glyphs of the same case! Argh! It actually causes me psychological pain to look at that!
The typeface Adobe Caslon Pro Italic (bottom) does the same thing as Monotype Garamond Italic (top), though not so egregiously. I hate it, too.
One more thing. I blew up the lowercase l and put some straight red lines behind it. Look at that! The sides of the blasted letter aren't even straight! What's with that?!!
And here's a close-up of the O. Look at all those bumps! I have trouble believing that that improves legibility at all; it's just evidence of poor design. Jean Jannon gets a pass, since he had to carve steel; Monotype, not so much.
Notes:
[1] Most of the introduction is based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garamond.
[2] But see here. The ITC Garamond he bewails is similar to the Monotype Garamond I deride here.
Here is the basic alphabet, showing both lowercase and uppercase glyphs. What drives me crazy is that the slope (also called the angle or slant) of the letters is inconsistent. Here, let me show you:
I've taken the lowercase l and the uppercase I (both in red) and positioned them behind the rest of the letters so that you can see how much the slant varies from letter to letter. As you can see the b and the f are closer to being vertical than the l is, but the k and the m are even further away. The same is true for the capital letters: the B and the F are closer to being vertical than the I is (even worse, the E and the F, which should look nearly identical, don't even have the same slope!), while the K and the S are further away. (The most egregious example, though, is the R.)
What first brought this terrible typeface to my attention was the difference in slope between uppercase and lowercase letters—it's even worse than the disparity among glyphs of the same case! Argh! It actually causes me psychological pain to look at that!
The typeface Adobe Caslon Pro Italic (bottom) does the same thing as Monotype Garamond Italic (top), though not so egregiously. I hate it, too.
One more thing. I blew up the lowercase l and put some straight red lines behind it. Look at that! The sides of the blasted letter aren't even straight! What's with that?!!
Notes:
[1] Most of the introduction is based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garamond.
[2] But see here. The ITC Garamond he bewails is similar to the Monotype Garamond I deride here.
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