NOTE: This project is currently suspended as Paul Baker's
time has been engulfed by Web development.
We are keeping this section here for those who may be interested.
We hope to eventually complete this project.
NOTE: This project is currently suspended as Paul Baker's
time has been engulfed by Web development.
We are keeping this section here for those who may be interested.
We hope to eventually complete this project.
elcome to a book-in-progress. We will be writing, designing and revising this book on the Web. We believe that this may be the first book created in this fashion. You will be able to follow our progress, suggest changes and additions, correct our errors or just make general comments. As chapters are finished (13 are planned) we will add links to them in the menu at the top of this screen. After this Web version is finished it will be published (bound, on paper) by Hartley and Marks.
We are going to tell two interrelated stories presented in separate, facing, narratives. The principal narrative, in the right frame, will be written by typographer and designer Paul Baker. It will describe his re-creation and digitizing of Eusebius, a Jenson-style typeface. Baker’s design was based on his historical research on Jenson and on metal patterns used for a 1928 Ludlow Jenson-derived design. The methods he used will be described in enough detail so that a clever person will be able to gain sufficient technical knowledge to create his or her own typefaces.
The second narrative, in the left frame, will be written by Paul F. Gehl, curator of the Wing collection at the Newberry Library in Chicago. It will be presented on facing frames, in different typographical dress. He tells the history of Jenson and of some subsequent Jenson-derived Venetian faces.
The process of modernizing Jenson (or any) classic typeface involves frequent reference to the social, intellectual and technological contexts of the original typeface and its subsequent revivals. We hope that two parallel, logical, and complete stories will be more interesting and easier to comprehend than would one integrated text with multiple, possibly disorienting, historical and contextual flashbacks.
Because we wish to use real quotes, em and en dashes, etc., we will be using the Windows character set for special characters. Until browser makers reconcile the different character sets, some special characters may not reproduce correctly on other platforms. Because of the number of frames used in this presentation you may wish to maximize your browser window.
Copyright ©1997 Paul Baker and Paul F. Gehl