The classification is known as modern, or Didone. Didot is a group of typefaces named after the famous French printing and type producing Didot family. #typography #Typedesign #paris #france #didot #capitals #typofonderieĪ post shared by Typofonderie on at 11:14pm PDTĩ. The Firmin Didot large capitals are a joy for the eyes since two centuries.

Since Didot created his first typeface in the eighteenth century, many typographers have created designs inspired by the Didot type family, and these new interpretations pay tribute to the impact Didot had on the world of typography.” “Today, Didot's legacy can be seen in the ‘modern Moderns.’ Modern typefaces tend to denote luxury brands, and are often used on the covers of fashion publications such as Vogue.

Viewing Baskerville, Didot, and then Bodoni alongside each other shows an important transition into Modern typography.” Bodoni's letters were dramatic, with horizontal serifs and high contrast. He also admired Baskerville, and his designs were greatly influenced by Didot. “Thirty years later, an Italian type designer, Giambattista Bodoni, started creating his own Modern typeface. This font, regarded as the first Modern typeface, has high contrast between thick and thin strokes, hairline serifs with no bracketing, and vertical stress in rounded strokes.”

“Firmin was inspired by Baskerville's typeface and took his experiments in letterform to the extreme, designing his first font in 1784. This attempt to maintain the look and feel of manuscripts, known as Old Style, ended in the 1750s when the English printer John Baskerville designed the first Transitional typeface, known as Baskerville” writes Hart of Didot’s legacy. “When movable type was first created, fonts were designed to look as much like the handwriting of scribes as possible. Many fonts today are available based on Firmin Didot's typefaces, and are often called Didot as a result.Ĩ. The types that Didot used are characterized by extreme contrast in thick strokes and thin strokes, by the use of hairline serifs and by the vertical stress of the letters. A man of words and tales himself, Didot was also the author of two tragedies - La Reine de Portugal and La Mort d’Annibal - and he wrote metrical translations from Virgil, Tyrtaeus and Theocritus.ħ. Along with Italy’s Giambattista Bodoni, Firmin Didot is credited with establishing the use of the Didone or 'Modern' style of serif typefaces. He published stereotyped editions of French, English and Italian classics at a very low price. Three years later, at the 1798 Exposition des produits de l'industrie française Pierre and Firmin Didot and Louis Etienne Herhan won an honorable distinction, the highest award, for their 'Superb edition of Virgil with characters and ink of their manufacture a stereotype plate, and an in-12 edition of the works of Virgil and Lafontaine with these characters.'ĥ. Didot was appointed by Napoleon as the director of the Imprimerie Impériale typefoundry.Ħ. Didot first used the process in his edition of Callet’s Tables of Logarithms (1795), in which he secured an accuracy till then unattainable. Watson Library for The Met.ģ. Didot invented the word 'stereotype', which in printing refers to the metal printing plate created for the actual printing of pages (as opposed to printing pages directly with movable type), and used the process extensively, revolutionizing the book trade by his cheap editions.Ĥ.

The family's most lasting legacy is the Didot family of fonts, designed by Firmin Didot, which influences typography to this day” writes Dana Hart, Manager for Library Administration at the Thomas J. Making classic works-be they artistic, philosophical, or literary-available to a broad audience was only part of the family's influence, however. “The former were illustrated by some of the most respected artists of the day, providing a wide audience with access to images that had only ever been available to those privileged few who had access to royal palaces and aristocratic chateaus. A dynasty of French printers, punch-cutters, and publishers, the family “gained renown for their illustrated editions of the classics, as well as for publishing inexpensive editions of scholarly texts.” 1. Firmin Didot (14 April 1764 – 24 April 1836) was a French printer, engraver, and type founder.Born in Paris into a family of printers founded by François Didot, the father of 11 children, Firmin was one of his grandchildren.Ģ.

Didot typeface classification