Cheltenham is a

typeface A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font. There are thousands o ...

for display use designed in 1896 by architect

Bertram Goodhue Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue (April 28, 1869 – April 23, 1924) was an American architect celebrated for his work in Gothic Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival design. He also designed notable typefaces, including Cheltenham and Merrymount for ...

and Ingalls Kimball, director of the Cheltenham Press. The original drawings were known as ''Boston Old Style'' and were made about 14" high. These drawings were then turned over to

Morris Fuller Benton Morris Fuller Benton (November 30, 1872 – June 30, 1948) was an American typeface designer who headed the design department of the American Type Founders (ATF), for which he was the chief type designer from 1900 to 1937. Many of Benton's ...

American Type Founders American Type Founders (ATF) Co. was a business trust created in 1892 by the merger of 23 type foundries, representing about 85% of all type manufactured in the United States. De Vinne, Theodore Low, ''The Practice of Typography,'' Century Com ...

(ATF) who developed it into a final design. Trial cuttings were made as early as 1899 but the face was not complete until 1902. The face was patented by Kimball in 1904. Later the basic face was spun out into an extensive type family by Morris Fuller Benton. Cheltenham is not based on a single historical model, and shows influences of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Originally intended as a text face, "Chelt" became hugely successful as the "king of the display faces." Part of the face's huge popularity is because, as it has elements of both an

old style Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, this is the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 158 ...

and transitional face, a Cheltenham headline complements virtually any body type. The overwhelming popularity of the face for display purposes lasted until the advent of the

geometric sans-serif typefaces Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ca ...

of the 1930s.

Foundry Type

The following versions were available in foundry type: * ATF's Cheltenham series ** ''Cheltenham'' (1903,

, Ingalls Kimball,

and/or Joseph W. Phinney) ** ''Cheltenham Bold'' (1903,

) ** ''Cheltenham Bold Condensed'' (1904,

) ** ''Cheltenham Bold Italic + Cheltenham Bold Condensed Italic + Cheltenham Wide + Cheltenham Bold Outline'' (1905,

) ** ''Cheltenham Bold Extra Condensed + Cheltenham Bold Extended'' (1906,

) ** ''Cheltenham Inline + Cheltenham Inline Extra Condensed ** ''Cheltenham Inline Extended'' (1907,

) ** ''Cheltenham Oldstyle Condensed + Cheltenham Medium'' (1909,

) ** ''Cheltenham Medium Italic + Cheltenham Extra Bold'' (1910,

) ** ''Cheltenham Bold Shaded + Cheltenham Bold Italic Shaded + Cheltenham Extra Bold Shaded'' (1912,

) ** ''Cheltenham Medium Condensed + Cheltenham Medium Expanded'' (1913,

) ** '' Venetian'' (1911,

) was originally called ''Cheltenham #2'', but its resemlance to the original face was only slight. * Linotype,

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 ...

, and

Ludlow Ludlow () is a market town in Shropshire, England. The town is significant in the history of the Welsh Marches and in relation to Wales. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road which bypasses the town. The ...

all produced their own Cheltenham under that name and with almost as many variations as ATF. A few new variations were added: ** ''Cheltenham Cursive'' ( R. Hunter Middleton,

) ** ''Cheltenham Wide Italic'' (

Sol Hess Sol Hess (born 1886, Philadelphia, PA – d. 1953) was an American typeface designer. After a three-year scholarship course at Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Design, he began at Lanston Monotype in 1902, rising to typographic mana ...

) * Intertype called their version ''Cheltonian'' *

Western Type Foundry Western Type Foundry was founded in 1901 to compete with the conglomerate and near-monopoly, American Type Founders. In 1914 Western purchased the Advance Type Foundry in Chicago from ''Wiebking, Hardinge & Company'', though even before this Ro ...

called their version ''Chesterfield'' * Hansen Type Foundry called their version ''Craftsman'' *

Inland Type Foundry The Inland Type Foundry was an American type foundry established in 1894 in Saint Louis, Missouri and later with branch offices in Chicago and New York City. Although it was founded to compete directly with the "type trust" (American Type Founde ...

called their version ''Kenilworth'' (1904) *

Keystone Type Foundry American Type Founders (ATF) Co. was a business trust created in 1892 by the merger of 23 type foundries, representing about 85% of all type manufactured in the United States. De Vinne, Theodore Low, ''The Practice of Typography,'' Century Comp ...

called their version ''Lowell'' (1905, Charles W. Smith) * Stephenson Blake called their version ''Winchester'' * English Monotype called their version ''Gloucester'' * Berthold called their version ''Sorbonne'' (1905)

Cold Type Versions

The popularity of ''Cheltenham'' continued strong right in the

cold type Phototypesetting is a method of setting type. It uses photography to make columns of type on a scroll of photographic paper. It has been made obsolete by the popularity of the personal computer and desktop publishing ( digital typesetting). ...

era, and it was offered by various manufacturers under the following names: * ''Nordoff'' — Autologic * ''Sorbonne'' — Berthold * ''Cheltonian'' —

Harris Harris may refer to: Places Canada * Harris, Ontario * Northland Pyrite Mine (also known as Harris Mine) * Harris, Saskatchewan * Rural Municipality of Harris No. 316, Saskatchewan Scotland * Harris, Outer Hebrides (sometimes called the Isle of ...

* ''Gloucester'' —

A cold type variant ''ITC Cheltenham'', was also designed by

Tony Stan Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby lea ...

for the

International Typeface Corporation The International Typeface Corporation (ITC) was a type manufacturer founded in New York in 1970 by Aaron Burns, Herb Lubalin and Edward Rondthaler. The company was one of the world's first type foundries to have no history in the production of ...

, in 1975. It features a larger

x-height upright 2.0, alt=A diagram showing the line terms used in typography In typography, the x-height, or corpus size, is the distance between the baseline and the mean line of lowercase letters in a typeface. Typically, this is the height of the le ...

and improved italic details. The family includes 4 weights and 2 width each, with complementary italics.

Digital versions

The original face has been digitized by the current owner, Kingsley/ATF and is sold by Bitstream Inc. The ITC version is also available from Linotype,

, and Adobe Systems, along with ITC Cheltenham Handtooled, a 1993 version with highlight, designed by

Ed Benguiat Ephram Edward Benguiat (; October 27, 1927October 15, 2020) was an American type designer and lettering artist. He designed over 600 typefaces, including Tiffany, Bookman, Panache, Souvenir, Edwardian Script, and the eponymous Benguiat and Bengu ...

. Other versions are available from

Tilde The tilde () or , is a grapheme with several uses. The name of the character came into English from Spanish, which in turn came from the Latin '' titulus'', meaning "title" or "superscription". Its primary use is as a diacritic (accent) i ...

Font Bureau The Font Bureau, Inc. or Font Bureau is a digital type foundry based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The foundry is one of the leading designers of typefaces, specializing in type designs for magazine and newspaper publishers. History ...

, URW++, Scangraphic Digital Type Collection, and

Elsner+Flake Elsner+Flake is a trademark used by German type foundry originally called EF Designstudios but later renamed Elsner+Flake Type Consulting GmbH and is currently based in Hamburg. The company was founded in 1986 by Veronika Elsner and Günther Flake ...

. Besley Clarendon is available from HiH. Monotype offers its version under the name Gloucester.

Prominent usage

In 2003, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' introduced a more unified Cheltenham typographic palette for its headline use in the print edition. Previously, Cheltenham was only one of several types including a sans-serif in a Victorian looking mix of headline faces. Tom Bodkin, assistant managing editor and design director of the ''Times,'' engaged typeface designer

Matthew Carter Matthew Carter (born 1 October 1937) is a British type designer.Christophe_Plantin.html" ;"title="y Christophe Plantin">y Christophe Plantin' in typography's golden age was in perfect condition (some muddle aside) long withPlantin's accoun ...

to create multiple weights and a heavily condensed width of Cheltenham to replace most of the Latin Extra Condensed face in use, as well as Bookman and a variant of Century Bold. In the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...

the bill or resolution number of all bills and resolutions set for public printing is set in Cheltenham. The typeface is also featured within the bills and laws themselves to designate title and section headings. The

Liturgical Press Saint John's Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Collegeville Township, Minnesota, United States, affiliated with the American-Cassinese Congregation. The abbey was established following the arrival in the area of monks from Saint Vincent Arch ...

uses the Cheltenham Bold typeface for Lectionaries prescribed by the

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic Conference (US ...

for Roman Catholic dioceses in the United States. IDG's ...for Dummies series of how-to books are set in ITC Cheltenham. L.L.Bean's logo is set in Cheltenham.

Akai Akai ( ja, 赤井, ) is a Hong Kong manufacturer of consumer electronics. It was founded as Akai Electric Company Ltd in Tokyo, Japan, in 1946. Grande Holdings in Hong Kong purchased the Akai brand, and now distributes various electronic produ ...

's logo is set in ITC Cheltenham Ultra. The street name plaques of

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...

are set in Cheltenham. This font is used prominently in the

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

'' Cowboy Bebop'', most notably for the ending cards of each episode, usually with the phrase ''"See you Space Cowboy..."'' From 1992 to 2000,

Mars Incorporated Mars, Incorporated is an American multinational manufacturer of confectionery, pet food, and other food products and a provider of animal care services, with US$40 billion in annual sales in 2021. Mars was ranked as the fourth-largest privat ...

used this font for the flavor descriptions (Plain, Peanut, etc.) of the

M&M's M&M's (stylized as m&m's) are multi-colored button-shaped chocolates, each of which has the letter "m" printed in lower case in white on one side, consisting of a candy shell surrounding a filling which varies depending upon the variety of M&M ...

candies.

Bibliography

*Blackwell, Lewis. ''20th Century Type.'' Yale University Press: 2004. . *Fiedl, Frederich, Nicholas Ott and Bernard Stein. ''Typography: An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Through History.'' Black Dog & Leventhal: 1998. . *Jaspert, W. Pincus, W. Turner Berry and A.F. Johnson. ''The Encyclopedia of Type Faces.'' Blandford Press Lts.: 1953, 1983. . *Lawson, Alexander S., ''

Anatomy of a Typeface ''Anatomy of a Typeface'' is a book on typefaces written by Alexander Lawson.''Anatomy of a Typeface'', Alexander Lawson, David R. Godine, 1990. Background The book is notable for devoting entire chapters to the development and uses of individual ...

''. Godine: 1990. . *Macmillan, Neil. ''An A–Z of Type Designers.'' Yale University Press: 2006. .

References

External links

MyFonts: Cheltenham
(in French)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheltenham (Typeface) Old style serif typefaces Letterpress typefaces Photocomposition typefaces Digital typefaces Typefaces and fonts introduced in 1903