Goudy Old Style (also known as just Goudy) is an
old-style serif 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 ...
originally created by
Frederic W. Goudy
Frederic William Goudy (, March 8, 1865 – May 11, 1947) was an American printer, artist and type designer whose typefaces include Copperplate Gothic, Goudy Old Style and Kennerley. He was one of the most prolific of American type designers and ...
for
American Type Founders (ATF) in 1915.
Suitable for text and display applications, Goudy Old Style matches the historicist trend of American printing in the early twentieth century, taking inspiration from the printing of the
Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the tra ...
without a specific historical model.
Eccentricities include the upward-curved ear on the g and the diamond shape of the dots of the i, j, and the points found in the period, colon and exclamation point, and the sharply canted hyphen. The design is relatively light in
colour
Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...
.
History

In Goudy's autobiography, he described the italic based on study of sixteenth-century italics: "I studied many of the older italics and came to the conclusion that...some of the outstanding italics of the sixteenth century had little or no inclination and yet preserved their italic character".
Several variants, designed by several designers, were released in the ensuing years (all faces ATF unless otherwise specified).
By Goudy:
* Goudy Old Style (1915)
* Goudy Old Style Italic, inspired by
Aldine designs.
* Goudy Cursive, a "loose italic" adding swashes and more calligraphic alternate characters. Missing from most digitisations but included on the LTC release.
By
Morris Fuller Benton:
* Goudy Bold (1916)
* Goudy Title (1918), a full size variation on Goudy's small capitals from the Goudy Old Style roman.
* Goudy Bold Italic (1919) The
Lanston Monotype version of the italic includes cursive capitals by
Sol Hess.
* Goudy Catalog (1919) and ''Goudy Catalog Italic'' (1921), designed as medium weight companions.
* Goudy Extra Bold + Italic (1927)
By others:
* Goudy Handtooled + Italic (1922), were in-line versions of ''Goudy Bold + Italic'' (with a white line inside the letter) and were probably designed by
Charles H. Becker, though other authorities credit either
Morris Fuller Benton or
Wadsworth A. Parker. Again, the
Lanston Monotype version of the italic includes cursive capitals by
Sol Hess.
* Goudy Children, which features single-story variants of the letters ''a'' and ''g'' in italic, bold, and bold italic styles for use in children's books.
The face was an instant best seller, prompting ATF to issue a special 124-page specimen book of the series in 1927. The
descenders
''Descenders'' is a cycling video game developed by Dutch studio RageSquid and published by No More Robots. It was released for Linux, macOS, Windows, and Xbox One on 7 May 2019, for PlayStation 4 on 25 August 2020, for Nintendo Switch on 6 No ...
of Goudy Old Style were kept short at ATF's insistence to allow tight line setting on their
common line system, to Goudy's irritation.
In addition, he sold the design to ATF for $1500 and received no royalty, causing his relationship with the foundry to deteriorate.
Hot metal copies

The face was immediately licensed to
Lanston Monotype and some of the weights were issued by
Intertype as well.
Ludlow called its 1924 knock-off the ''Number Eleven series''. Monotype's designer F.H. Pierpont, better known for
Rockwell and
Monotype Grotesque
Monotype Grotesque is a family of sans-serif typefaces released by the Monotype Corporation for its hot metal typesetting system. It belongs to the grotesque or industrial genre of early sans-serif designs. Like many early sans-serifs, it forms ...
, designed a similar face named ''Horley Old Style'', adding a distinct influence of
Caslon designs.
Cold type copies
As the face was a "classic" almost from the day of its issue, producers of
cold type offered their own versions of ''Goudy Old Style'' under the following names:
* ''Goudy Oldstyle'' — Alphatype,
Berthold,
Harris,
Mergenthaler
* ''Goudy Bold'' —
Autologic
Eddie Stobart Group is a British multimodal logistics company, with interests in road haulage, rail freight, deep sea and inland waterway transport systems and deep sea port, inland port and rail connected storage facilities, along with transpor ...
* ''Goudy Light'' —
Dymo, Star/Photon
* ''Grecian Old Style'' —
Graphic Systems Inc.
Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufactu ...
Digital copies

Commercial releases have been made by
Monotype, Fontsite, DTP Types, Electric Typographer,
Lanston Type,
Bitstream,
URW++ (bundled with
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is the former name of a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a ma ...
),
Adobe
Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for '' mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of ...
, and
Linotype. As many early digitisations were sublicensed, several of these may represent the same digitisation marketed by different rights-holders, possibly upgraded with modern features such as contextual ligature substitution and small caps. LTC's digitisation includes the calligraphic and swash alternate characters, as well as
small caps
In typography, small caps (short for "small capitals") are characters typeset with glyphs that resemble uppercase letters (capitals) but reduced in height and weight close to the surrounding lowercase letters or text figures. This is technica ...
. ''Goudy Catalog'' has been copied by
Scangraphic
Scangraphic is a division of Dr. Böger Duplomat Apparate GmbH & Co.KG, based in Wedel near Hamburg, Germany. It was founded by Bernd Holthusen and Knut Schmiedl.
Mannesmann AG acquired Scangraphic in 1989, and the company was renamed Mannesma ...
,
Bitstream,
URW++, and
Elsner+Flake. A version called ''Goudy Schoolbook'' also exists, with single-story versions of the letters ''a'' and ''g'', but it is not for sale to the general public. (The digitisation bundled with Microsoft Office lacks all these features; it does include ligatures, but they must be inserted manually.)
'Sorts Mill Goudy' is an open-source revival created by Barry Schwartz as part of the League of Movable Type project, which contains small capitals and other
OpenType features. Bhikkhu Pesala expanded this under the name 'Sukhumala', adding bold, bold italic and handtooled styles.
ATF's other related fonts, Goudy Handtooled and Goudy Catalog, have also been digitised, again with a variety of companies holding some rights although only LTC's release includes Handtooled Italic.
Goudy Title has not been digitised under that name.
Usage
''Goudy Old Style'' is the text typeface used in
Harper's Magazine. It is the official typeface of
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of h ...
in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...
,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to t ...
,
Lewis & Clark College
Lewis & Clark College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Originally chartered in 1867 as the Albany Collegiate Institute in Albany, Oregon, the college was relocate ...
in
Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populou ...
,
Moravian College in
Bethlehem
Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...
,
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Chart ...
in
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore (Chicago), North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Chicago Loop, Downtown Chicago, ...
,
Clemson University in
Clemson, South Carolina
Clemson () is a city in Pickens and Anderson counties in the U.S. state of South Carolina. Clemson is home to Clemson University; in 2015, '' the Princeton Review'' cited the town of Clemson as ranking #1 in the United States for " town-and-g ...
, and
Vassar College in
Poughkeepsie,
New York. It is also used by the
National University of Colombia. It is also the standard body text font for
Key Club publications. The bold italic weight is used for the wordmark of Whittard's.
Other Goudy typefaces
Frederic Goudy's name is associated with many other
typefaces designed by Goudy, but not related to ''Goudy Oldstyle,'' including:
[MacGrew, "American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century," pp. 160-169.]
* Goudy Light + Italic (1908,
Lanston Monotype)
*
Goudy Bookletter (1911,
Village Letter Foundry
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
+ 1920,
Lanston Monotype + 1927
Continental); also known as "Kennerly Old Style" as it was commissioned by
Mitchell Kennerley
* Goudy Lanston (1912,
Village Letter Foundry
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
, later
Lanston Monotype)
* Goudy Roman (1914,
Barnhart Brothers & Spindler), it is unclear if the type was ever cast in quantity.
* Goudy Open (1918,
Village Letter Foundry
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
+ 1924,
Monotype Ltd. + 1927,
Continental)
* Goudy Modern (1918,
Village Letter Foundry
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
+ 1924,
Monotype Ltd. + 1927,
Continental), basically just a “filled in” version of ''Goudy Open''.
* Goudy Open Italic and Goudy Modern Italic (1919,
Village Letter Foundry
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
+ 1924,
Monotype Ltd.)
* Goudy Newstyle (1921,
Village Letter Foundry
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
+ 1927,
Continental + 1941,
Lanston Monotype), re-cut in 1935 and sold to Monotype who then marketed it as ''Goudy Bible''.
* Goudy Heavy Face + Italic (1925,
Lanston Monotype + 1927,
Continental), intend to compete with
Cooper Black.
* Goudy Heavy Face Open (1926,
Lanston Monotype) and Goudy Heavy Face Condensed (1927,
Lanston Monotype) were designed by
Sol Hess.
* Goudy Antique (1926, privately cast by
Village Letter Foundry
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
+ 1927,
Continental)
* Goudytype (1928,
ATF
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), commonly referred to as the ATF, is a domestic law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice. Its responsibilities include the investigation and preven ...
), designed and cut in 1916, not cast and sold until later.
* Goudy Black (1928,
Continental), later cast as Goudy Text by
Lanston Monotype.
* Goudy Sans Serif series
** ''Goudy Sans Serif Heavy'' or ''Sans Serif Bold'' (1929,
Lanston Monotype)
** ''Goudy Sans Serif Light'' (1930,
Lanston Monotype)
** ''GoudySans Serif Light Italic'' (1931,
Lanston Monotype)
* Goudy Forum (1929,
Continental + 1932,
Lanston Monotype)
* Goudy Ornate or ''Ornate Title'' (1930,
Continental), capitals only
* Saks Goudy + Italic + Bold Caps (1934), a private type cast for
Saks Fifth Avenue
Saks Fifth Avenue (originally Saks & Company; colloquially Saks) is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in New York City and founded by Andrew Saks. The original store opened in the F Street shopping district of Washing ...
department store. ''Saks Goudy Bold Caps'' actually consists of the small capitals of larger sizes cast on larger bodies.
* Goudy Stout (1939,
Continental), only cut in 24 pt. capitals, few ever cast.
* Goudy Thirty (1953,
Lanston Monotype), cut with the intention of being issued after Goudy's death, “thirty” being a newspaper term for the end of the story. Goudy finished work on it in 1942 and Monotype waited several years after his death in 1947 before issuing the font.
References
*Friedl, Frederich, Nicholas Ott and Bernard Stein. ''Typography: An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Through History.'' Black Dog & Leventhal: 1998. .
*Lawson, Alexander S., ''
Anatomy of a Typeface''. Godine: 1990. .
*Meggs, Philip B. and McKelvey, Roy.''Revival of the Fittest: Digital Versions of Classic Typefaces.'' RC Publications: 2000. .
External links
{{Commons category, Goudy Old Style
Goudy at the Linotype Type GallerySorts Mill Goudy a free and open-source revival of Goudy Oldstyle by Barry Schwartz
Old style serif typefaces
Typefaces with text figures
Typefaces with infant variants
American Type Founders typefaces
Letterpress typefaces
Photocomposition typefaces
Digital typefaces
Typefaces and fonts introduced in 1915
Typefaces designed by Frederic Goudy