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Bitstream Baskerville
I recently acquired a copy of Word Perfect that was being thrown out... and got a truckload of Bitstream fonts as a result. While I know a bit about some Bitstream fonts (Aldine 721, for example, seems to be a quite well-regarded Plantin revival), I was wondering what people think of their Baskervilles (they seem to have two) I can't find uch about them online, but I figure that if anyone knows anything, they're likely to be here...
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28 Aug 2008 — 12:54pm
One of the Bitstream cuts is supposed to be very closely based on a Linotype version of Baskerville which was a favourite with book designers mid-20th century. What its precise name is, or how good it really is, I don't know, but there is a certain amount of refined buzz surrounding it.
28 Aug 2008 — 1:32pm
I can't shut all the windows down now to take a serious look, and of course, I don't know just which Bitstream Baskerville you have. . . .
But remember that Bitstream was started by Mike Parker (formerly of Linotype) and Matthew Carter (formerly of Linotype), and that Carter was heavily involved in the making of Linotype's New Baskerville. I'd bet new donuts to old dollars that at least one of the Bitstream Baskervilles is a slight improvement on *New Baskerville* -- except that Bitstream, at least in the early days, didn't have old-style figures & small caps. You use to be able to buy the Linotype sets of just os figs & small caps quite cheaply; dunno if that is still true. New Baskerville is basically a text font, & text really deserves old style (aka text) figures.
FWIW
30 Aug 2008 — 3:22pm
Charles, I think I can remember Matthew Carter telling me that New Baskerville was not his project and he couldn't imagine who first attributed it to him. As I remember it, he said that NB was basically a 'Linotype Design Studio' affair. The Bitstream cut of Baskerville I am thinking of was supposed to replicate a particular Lino metal cut. Also, it's a mistake to assume that Bitstream didn't have OSF, SC, and other glyphs. I have made the same error. What they sold does not reflect the wealth of data that was actually designed, redesigned, and digitized.
There has been a desire at Bitstream to get some of this rich data out there, but it appears to be somewhat stymied, perhaps because of lack of standardization. That reflects the dreadful productization problem you face the minute you move away from a limited T1 font.
30 Aug 2008 — 9:43pm
There has been a desire at Bitstream to get some of this rich data out there…
I certainly have a desire for rich Bitstream fonts! How great would it be to get an Opentype version of Type Odyssey with all the goodies that got left out of those gorgeous fonts?
31 Aug 2008 — 6:31am
Bill, somewhere in my emails I have a message from Matthew saying he wasn't involved with the Baskerville Greek fonts often attributed to him, but he didn't mention & I wasn't aware he had little involvement in the New Baskerville project itself.
Wouldn't surprise me too much though, a lot of the work on fonts was done by various people in the drawing rooms at Linotype & Monotype, and of course by committees. A project like NB which is in some sense a *revival* would probably be attributed to a particular person only if they took an strong interest in shepherding it through, as happened with Monticello.
And yes, it would be nice to have the supplemental characters for the older Bitstream fonts.
31 Aug 2008 — 7:27am
In 2004, Larry Oppenberg wrote the following to the ATypI mailing list:
"New Baskerville was developed by John Quaranta with assistance from staff designers in the Manhattan drawing office of Mergenthaler Linotype. I can say so for sure since I worked there at the time. The "New" was primarily the development of Semi Bold and Black weights with italics to complement the pre existing Regular and Bold weights with italics which were also tweaked somewhat. Matthew Carter had no involvement with the project and if you ask him he will tell you so. The designs were later licensed to ITC. The original New Baskerville master drawings reside at the Museum of Printing in North Andover Massachusetts, complete with title block signatures of John Quaranta. If you come visit you can see them first hand. BTW, the same people/same process applies to New Caledonia."
To which Matthew Carter responded:
"Larry is right. I'm not sure how the confusion came about, unless perhaps because I was working on Baskerville Greek (with Tim Holloway) for Linotype at about the same time. In the interests of accuracy I have asked Linotype to remove my name from the design credit for New Baskerville on their website."
31 Aug 2008 — 9:39am
Thanks for clearing all the up, Dan. I’ve been wondering about the New Baskerville attributions for a while.
5 Sep 2008 — 3:57pm
I have found this information from my copy of an internal document describing Bitstream's library. The author is probably Mike Parker.
Bitstream Baskerville: 'The present design is an accurate recutting, with particular attention to George W. Jones's revision from the metal of Baskerville's English (14 pt) roman and italic in 1929 . . . .'
Bitstream Transitional 404, Baskerville No. 2: 'This redesign is made from proofs, rather than the metal, and so is heavier, with particular attention to the Harris and the Monotype revision, which was made from proofs of Baskerville's Great Primer (16 pt)'
for what it's worth! No. 2 doesn't look that heavy to me - - certainly nothing like the fabulous Monotype metal family!