Antiqua (typeface class)

Antiqua

Antiqua is a style of text used to mimic the hand. Antiqua, Blackletter, Fraktur and Textura are all the same; they are all examples of Handwriting text or Old Style text. Many People would think that Antiqua and Blackletter are two different styles but they are both Old English.

History

Antiqua typefaces are those designed between about 1470 and 1600, specifically those by Nicolas Jenson and the Aldine roman commissioned by Aldus Manutius and cut by Francesco Griffo. Antiqua letterforms were modelled on a synthesis of Roman inscriptional capitals and Carolingian writing. They are also known as Venetian types and occasionally as old style, differentiated from modern styles by the more or less uniform thickness of all strokes and by slanted serifs.

Antiqua Designers

Berne Nadall (born February 28, 1869) - Calson Antiqua (1896–1898). An American designer

Hermann Zapf (born November 8, 1918- ) - Zapf Renaissance Antiqua (1984–1987). Created many different fonts over the years

Paul Renner (1878–1956) - Renner Antiqua (1939). Paul Renner created the Futura (typeface).

Vojtěch Preissig (1873–1944) - created 'Preissig Antiqua' for Czechoslovakia type designs. a Czech designer that worked a lot on book and type design. Designers in Czechoslovakia felt that they should have a specific typeface that represented the Czech design culture. Preissig created 'Preissig Antiqua' roughly around the early 20th Century that would influence the style of print and type designs not only in Czechoslovakia, but also all over Europe in general.

Forms and Types of Antiqua

• Blackletter

Antiqua's Germanic opposite is blackletter, in which the letter forms are broken or fractured. In 19th- and 20th-century Germany there was a dispute over whether German should be written in antiqua or the highly-developed Fraktur blackletter. In 1911, the German Reichstag rejected an official switch by only three votes: 85 to 82. Hitler advocated a switch in 1934 but took no action until 1941 when a decree in Germany outlawed the use of blackletter in favour of antiqua See an English Translation of Martin Bormann's 1941 memo mandating the use of Antiqua.

• Carson Antiqua

Made by Berne Nadall (1896-98), Restored by American type foundry Barnhart Bros & Spindler. The type face restored is not Caslon's work but it was created by imagining how it would look during the time(1900's).

• Preissig Antiqua

Made by Vojtěch Preissig (1873-1944), a type designer and writer.

• Renner Antiqua

Made by Paul Renner, Revived by Patrick Strietzel (1939) Crafted at D. Stempel AG Foundry.

• Zapf Renaissance Antiqua

Made by Hermann Zapf, Typeface Designer,

Gallery of Antiqua and Works

See also

• Bembo
• History of western typography
• Roman type
• Typography
• Old-style figures

References

• Nesbitt, Alexander The History and Technique of Lettering (c) 1957, Dover Publications, Inc. ISBN 0486204278, Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 57-13116. The Dover edition is an abridged and corrected republication of the work originally published in 1950 by Prentice-Hall, Inc. under the title Lettering: The History and Technique of Lettering as Design.