Word Up: John Baskerville

John Baskerville was an English typographer and printer who lived from 1706-1775. He was part of the Royal Society of Arts. His career started as japanning, which is the art form of decorating metal with varnish. He was known for his intricate types and close attention to detail. He is most noted for his masterpiece Bible, ironically as he was an atheist, commissioned by Cambridge University press. His fonts consisted of level serifs and attention to light and heavy lines, which was very different than others at the time. He believed in elimination of anything to ornate that distracts from the purpose of reading. His font designs were very practical which made them so unique, especially for the era in which he was producing them. He made books with large type and small margins. He showed an extreme care for not only the typeface but also to the type of ink and paper being used. It was his fonts that led the way for fonts such as didot and bodoni. It was after Baskerville died that his fonts disappeared for a time. Eventually making a come back. It is because of his use of white space and simplicity that people like his font style. The font Baskerville however was not created by John himself but rather created from studying of his style and books that he produced through his lifetime.