Plantin (typeface)

Plantin is an old-style serif typeface created in 1913 by the British Monotype Corporation for their hot metal typesetting system. Named after the sixteenth-century printer Christophe Plantin, it is loosely based on a Gros Cicero roman type cut in the 16th century by Robert Granjon held in the collection of the Plantin–Moretus Museum in Antwerp. The intention behind the design of Plantin was to create a font with thicker letterforms than were often used at the time: early printing on absorbent book paper led to ink spread, but by 1913 innovations in smoothing and coated paper had led to reduced ink spread and made old types often look skeletal on paper. Monotype engineering manager Frank Hinman Pierpont visited the Plantin-Moretus Museum, where he acquired a printed specimen of historic types. Plantin was one of the first Monotype Corporation revivals that was not simply a copy of a typeface already popular in British printing; it has proved popular since its release and has been digitised. Monotype followed it with revivals of many other classic typefaces in the 1920s and 30s. Plantin would later also be used as one of the main models for the creation of Times New Roman in the 1930s. The Plantin family includes regular, light and bold weights, along with corresponding italics. At the time Plantin was released, Monotype's hot metal typesetting system, which cast new type for each printing job, was developing a reputation for practicality in trade and mass-market printing, but the designs offered by Monotype were relatively basic choices, such as a "modern" face, an "old style" and a Clarendon. James Moran and John Dreyfus suggested that an inspiration for the design may have been a c. 1910 family from the Shanks foundry known as "Plantin Old Style", advertised as highly legible.