Hi friends!
This week, while looking for fonts for my next design project, I stumbled upon Garamond. This isn’t a font that I’ve used, but I know it’s always been there, pre-loaded onto my computer. This got me thinking – how old is this font?
According to southype.com, Garamond has been around since the beginning of the 16th century and is still widely used today. It was created by Claude Garamond, a French type designer. Garamond’s career began in punch cutting, the creation of metal punches that would punch out metal letters for publication printing. After working around these punches, Garamond began experimenting with fonts, designing new ones and updating old ones.
It seems that he struck gold when he created Garamond (the font). “The Garamond typeface is characterized by its elegant, delicate strokes and its expert balance between the thick and thin lines.”
One of Garamond’s philosophies when it came to typography was that typefaces should mimic handwriting, rather than geometrical shapes. Although he prioritized this in his work, his font is still highly legible and is used today for book publications, website design, and branding.
Credit to: https://www.southype.com/Commerce/garamond-the-history/