But he was working in the 18th century, and had no concept that different sizes had to match in design.
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The first thing I learned, which was a little startling, was that there is no such thing as a typeface called “Caslon.” Caslon was, in fact, the person to produce a full range of roman and italic faces at all sizes. I also got to talk with Mosley, and got hold of a number of other specimens. Along the way, I got the facsimile of the big 1766 specimen book of Caslon-originally published just before William Caslon the 1st died-edited with notes by James Mosley. So I started drawing, and meanwhile started researching Caslon. So when Hudson wrote about how Adobe Caslon didn’t quite do it, I thought: maybe I can capture what I so liked in that Caslon.
With a warning that visual impression at size in print and on screen are very different, here’s a bit of the Einstein autobiography: And it always stuck in my head as having a distinct charm and readability that I never found quite matched in another typeface. I remembered reading Einstein’s ‘Autobiographical Notes’ back in my student days, and of course had to ID the typeface-fortunately, on “i love typography” I don’t have to explain why! The typeface was Mergenthaler Linotype Caslon Old Face, 12 point. At one point type designer John Hudson wrote, “Sadly, Adobe Caslon is the only version that is suited to a wide range of typographic application, but it doesn’t look like Caslon, so what’s the point?”Īt this point, a little bell went off in my head. It all started with an argument with the usual suspects at over the merits of Caslon-or lack of them. Here’s the experience that led me to those conclusions. So you’d better start with a very clear goal for your revival, and stick to it. Second, particularly if it’s an old typeface, it’s going to be harder than you imagined, and you can lose your way in the process. First, the pursuit of authenticity is a snare and a trap.
In the process of working on my own revival of Caslon- Williams Caslon-I came to two conclusions about revivals generally.
So what do you keep and what do you change? And change in what way? That’s the challenge every revivalist faces. But if it is too much like the old versions, it might be stale and dated, irrelevant. And you can’t depart from the original too much, or you lose the charm of the old song that appealed to you in the first place. How much should a revival of a typeface look like the original? Well, just as with performing an old song-an analogy Matthew Carter has made-there is something you have to like in the original in order want to revive it. William Berkson Part 1: The snare of authenticity
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