gfs-baskerville-fonts

John Baskerville (1706-1775) got involved in typography late in his career but his contribution was significant. He was a successful entrepreneur and possessed an inquiring mind which he applied to produce many aesthetic and technical innovations in printing. He invented a new ink formula, a new type of smooth paper and made various improvements in the printing press. He was also involved in type design which resulted in a Latin typeface which was used for the edition of Virgil, in 1757. The quality of the type was admired throughout of Europe and America and was revived with great success in the early 20th century. Baskerville was also involved in the design of a Greek typeface which he used in an edition of the New Testament for Oxford University, in 1763. He adopted the practice of avoiding the excessive number of ligatures which Alexander Wilson had started a few years earlier but his Greek types were rather narrow in proportion and did not win the sympathy of the philologists and other scholars of his time. They did influence, however, the Greek types of Giambattista Bodoni. and through him Didot’s Greek in Paris. The typeface has been digitally revived as GFS Baskerville Classic by Sophia Kalaitzidou and George D. Matthiopoulos and is now available as part of GFS’ type library.

Releases Overview