Gavin Angell: Who is John Baskerville and what did he deliver to the world of typography?

John Baskerville is a famous printer and typographer from the 1700’s. His work began in the late 1750’s and soon led to his employment as a printer at the University of Cambridge. He is most notable for his creation of what is now known as ‘Baskerville’ fonts, which were greatly admired by Benjamin Franklin. It was because of this admiration that the newly emerging United States would adopt the Baskerville typeface for its governmental publications.

Baskerville’s printed masterpiece is easily his folio bible (published in 1763), even though Baskerville was an atheist. His printed works tend to be larger, with broad margins, and printed on high quality paper with fine ink. The typeface fell prey to criticism and drifted out of regular use for some time until in the 1920’s when American classical typographer Bruce Rogers led the charge in its revival which has led to many modern fonts that draw directly from Baskerville’s style.

The Baskerville typeface is unique transitional typeface. It focuses on the variance of line weight within its characters. It also focuses on near horizontal serifs in its lower case letters.