Koch-Antiqua is a
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 ...
typeface intended for decorative and
display use, designed by
Rudolf Koch and published by the
Klingspor Type Foundry
The Klingspor Type Foundry was a German moveable type, hot metal type foundry established in 1892 when Carl Klingspor bought out the Rudhard’sche Foundry of Offenbach. His sons, Karl and younger brother Wilhelm, took on the business in 1904, ren ...
from 1922 onwards. It is a delicate face with a low
x-height, intended for decorative printing rather than for extended
body text.
Koch-Antiqua was Koch's first
roman or "Antiqua" type (the kind generally used in western Europe, as opposed to
blackletter
Blackletter (sometimes black letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule, or Textura, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century. It continued to be commonly used for the Danish, Norweg ...
writing) and achieved considerable attention both in Germany and abroad. It was exported under the names ''Locarno'' and ''Eve''.
Walter Tracy described it as "a highly individual design" that "reveals the working of a fastidious mind and a skilful hand . . . perfectly suited to express in print the idea of elegance."
Family
Koch-Antiqua was released in several weights:
* Roman: the regular weight and the only style digitised by Linotype.
* ''Kursiv'': a mixture of a
true italic (in which the letters take handwriting forms) and
oblique (simply slanted, as in the ''a''). The capitals have a line drawn in them at larger sizes, an effect that in Tracy's words "only a designer thoroughly familiar with the elaborate capitals of some of the older German gothic lettering, and uninhibited by the traditions of roman and italic, would apply."
* Bold (''groß'') and bold italic: A more "carved" design.
* ''Oberlängen'': Double-height capitals and letters with
ascenders, making the lowercase look even smaller and more delicate.
* Decorative capitals: ''
Zierbuchstaben'', inline capitals, and ''Initialen'', floral designs created by Koch's associate
Willi Harwerth
Willi is a given name, nickname (often a short form or hypocorism of Wilhelm) and surname. Notable people with the name include:
Given name
* Willi Apel (1893–1988), German-American musicologist
* Willi Boskovsky (1909–1991), Austrian violinis ...
.
* ''Fett:'' Extra-bold weight.
A number of unauthorised imitations were later created by
American Type Founders under the names of Rivioli and Paramount.
Digitisations
Koch-Antiqua has never been fully digitised, but a number of releases of some of the weights have been created. According to
Paul Shaw, Eva Antiqua is the most complete digitisation, which also adds digitisations of the bold weights of the ATF knockoff font Paramount.
None of the releases available as of 2011 include the decorative and extra-high letters of the original.
At least one
freeware implementation uses the ''Zierbuchstaben'' as its basis.
References
{{notelist, 30em
External links
Specimen digitised by Interrobang Letterpress
Extra-high capitals digitised by Indra Kupferschmid
Fonts in UseKlingspor specimen book 1951 Display typefaces
Serif typefaces
Typefaces designed by Rudolf Koch