Solus is a
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 ...
that was designed by
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national id ...
sculptor and stonemason
Eric Gill
Arthur Eric Rowton Gill, (22 February 1882 – 17 November 1940) was an English sculptor, letter cutter, typeface designer, and printmaker. Although the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' describes Gill as ″the greatest artist-cra ...
for the British
Monotype Corporation
Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc., founded as Lanston Monotype Machine Company in 1887 in Philadelphia by Tolbert Lanston, is an American (historically Anglo-American) company that specializes in digital typesetting and typeface design for use wit ...
and released in 1929.
Solus has a structure of straight, regular serifs reminiscent of
slab-serif
In typography, a slab serif (also called ''mechanistic'', ''square serif'', ''antique'' or ''Egyptian'') typeface is a type of serif typeface characterized by thick, block-like serifs. Serif terminals may be either blunt and angular ( Rockwell), ...
typefaces of the nineteenth century, but with a reduced build giving an impression of crispness.
Along with these characteristics, Solus bears the distinct personality of Gill's characteristic preferences in letterforms, such as the pointed end to the top left of the letter 'a'.
James Mosley
James Mosley (born 1935) is a retired librarian and historian whose work has specialised in the history of printing and letter design.
The main part of Mosley's career has been 42 years as Librarian of the St Bride Printing Library in London, whe ...
describes Solus as "essentially a mechanistic type — a ‘light Egyptian’", a conclusion also reached by editor
Robert Harling in his book on Gill's work.
Solus was not particularly popular during the metal type period, which Harling suggests was because it was too similar to Gill's pre-existing
Perpetua
Perpetua and Felicity ( la, Perpetua et Felicitas) were Christian martyrs of the 3rd century. Vibia Perpetua was a recently married, well-educated noblewoman, said to have been 22 years old at the time of her death, and mother of an infant son ...
, not having an
italic and having little appeal in display use, unlike more aggressive slab serif designs.
[ see also Harling's ''The Type Designs of Eric Gill'' in ''Alphabet and Image'', 1948] Gill's
Joanna
Joanna is a feminine given name deriving from from he, יוֹחָנָה, translit=Yôḥānāh, lit=God is gracious. Variants in English include Joan, Joann, Joanne, and Johanna. Other forms of the name in English are Jan, Jane, Janet, Janic ...
, designed some years later in a similar style but with an italic, has become much more popular.
Solus has not been digitised by Monotype; an unofficial revival has been made by the company K-Type.
Financier, by
Kris Sowersby, is a respected revival loosely influenced by Solus, Perpetua and Joanna. Its
optical size designed for small-size text is influenced by Solus and Joanna more while its display size more recalls Perpetua.
References
External links
Non Solus(unofficial revival
medium roman weight available as trial
{{Eric Gill
Slab serif typefaces
Monotype typefaces
Old style serif typefaces
Typefaces designed by Eric Gill