Walbaum is the name given to
serif
In typography, a serif () is a small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol within a particular font or family of fonts. A typeface or "font family" making use of serifs is called a serif typeface ( ...
typefaces
A typeface (or font family) is a design of letters, numbers and other symbols, to be used in printing or for electronic display. Most typefaces include variations in size (e.g., 24 point), weight (e.g., light, bold), slope (e.g., italic), width ...
in the
"Didone" or modern style that are, or revive the work of early nineteenth-century
punchcutter Justus Erich Walbaum (1768–1837), based in
Goslar
Goslar (; Eastphalian dialect, Eastphalian: ''Goslär'') is a historic town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the Goslar (district), district of Goslar and is located on the northwestern wikt:slope, slopes of the Harz ...
and then in
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), German state of Thuringia, in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt to the west and Jena to the east, southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together w ...
.
Walbaum-style typefaces are "rational" in design, with minimal serifs and strong contrast between thin horizontal and thick vertical strokes, following the work of typefounders such as
Firmin Didot and
Giambattista Bodoni.
They are often used in publishing and remain very popular in Germany. Walbaum also designed
fraktur
Fraktur () is a calligraphic hand of the Latin alphabet and any of several blackletter typefaces derived from this hand. It is designed such that the beginnings and ends of the individual strokes that make up each letter will be clearly vis ...
blackletter
Blackletter (sometimes black letter or black-letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule or Gothic type, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century. It continued to be commonly used for ...
typefaces, which (while not stylistically related) similarly have a structured and precise design.
Walbaum sold the materials of his foundry to Brockhaus, who in turn sold them to the
Berthold Type Foundry
H. Berthold AG was one of the largest and most successful type foundry, type foundries in the world for most of the modern typography, typographic era, making the transition from Movable type, foundry type to cold type successfully and only comin ...
.
In the twentieth century, Walbaum's type regained popularity through its sale by Berthold and copies were made by several companies. Digital revivals exist from
František Štorm (in a release with
optical size
In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design.
For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regula ...
s),
Monotype
Monotyping is a type of printmaking made by drawing or painting on a smooth, non-absorbent surface. The surface, or matrix, was historically a copper etching plate, but in contemporary work it can vary from zinc or glass to acrylic glass. The ...
(a 1933 version created for its
hot metal typesetting
In printing and typography, hot metal typesetting (also called mechanical typesetting, hot lead typesetting, hot metal, and hot type) is a technology for typesetting text in letterpress printing. This method injects molten type metal into a mo ...
system, and a separate digital version released in 2018),
Berthold, Linotype and others.
References
External links
* Monotype's gallery of Walbaum prints
1812 specimen sheetstext sizedisplay sizes
Justus
- Open source digitization from Font Library
{{Monotype typefaces
Didone serif typefaces
Typefaces with optical sizes