More Fournier

Carl Shank • August 20, 2025

(UPDATE FROM POST DECEMBER 23, 2024) Pierre-Simon Fournier  — In our history of typography series, Pierre-Simon Fournier (1712–1768) was a French typographer and type designer, renowned for his contributions to the field of typography in the 18th century. He is best known for his work in creating typefaces that reflected the elegance and sophistication of the time.


Fournier's work in type design focused on creating typefaces that were both visually appealing and functional. His types were characterized by their clarity, beauty, and legibility. The typeface Fournier is an aristocratic roman typeface. It is transitional, almost modern, in character, with a distinct French flavor, but with more grace and style than traditional French oldstyle designs. This modern character influenced the later work of Bodoni.(See Sample)


One of Fournier's significant contributions to typography was his establishment of a typographic point system. He invented a system that standardized measurements for type, which provided consistency and made it easier for printers to produce high-quality texts. This innovation helped printers achieve consistency in their work.


Fournier published a seminal work in the history of typography titled Manuel de la Typographie (Manual of Typography, two volumes published in 1764 and 1766), which included detailed descriptions of his typefaces along with examples. This work served as a reference for printers and typographers. The Introduction gives an overview of the principles of typography. In his Classification of typefaces, Fournier emphasizes the distinction between different styles, such as Roman, Italic, and Gothic types. The manual includes practical tips for setting type, including spacing, alignment, and layout, aimed at improving the quality of printed materials. Fournier includes numerous type specimens, showcasing his designs and providing examples of how different types can be used effectively in printing. Throughout the text, Fournier discusses the historical development of typography and its evolution, reflecting on the influence of various cultures and periods on the art of type.


Other contemporaries elsewhere, such as J.M. Fleischman and J. Enschedé, started imitating Fournier's style. In the 1750s, his career was at its peak. He advised royalty in Sweden and Sradinia on types, and set up a printing shop for Madame de Pompadour. He developed musical types in cooperation with J.G.I. Breitkopf in 1756. Fournier's designs influenced future generations of typographers and established a foundation for modern type design. His methods and styles contributed to the evolution of typography, leading to the development of various typefaces we see today.


The ORNAMENTS display is a careful digitized reproduction by CARE Typography of Fournier's original ad as seen in the "Fournier Specimen Book" by Lanston Monotype, 1927, in London.


Legacy: The Fournier MT family by Monotype (1924-1925) was based on the types cut by Pierre-Simon Fournier (ca. 1742) and was called St Augustin Ordinaire in Fournier's Manuel Typographique. Narcissus-Roman (1995, Font Bureau) is based on a 1745 design of Simon Pierre Fournier, and a 1921 version of it called Narcissus by Walter Tiemann for Klingspor, and was digitized by Brian Lucid in 1995. Jim Spiece's version is called Narcissus SG. In 1768, he designed an ornamental all caps face, which Peignot produced as Fournier le Jeune. More elaborate caps were added by ATF in the 1920s, and the current digital version by P22/Lanston, also called Fournier le Jeune, is based on that [see LTC Fournier Le Jeune]. Based on the decorated letters designed by P.S. Fournier c. 1746 and reproduced by Peignot.” [JBJ]

“Fournier or Fournier Le Jeune, with the exception of the figures, is a reproduction of Le Fournier Le Jeune originally cut in France in 1768 […] and revived in 1913 [by G. Deberny]. ATF secured the American rights in 1926.” [McGrew 1993]


Also offered by the Amsterdam Type Foundry as Gravure verziert.

Digitally revived by Paul D. Hunt for LTC as LTC Fournier Le Jeune, featuring “more elaborate ‘Vogue Initials’ caps which were offered by ATF in 1920s.” [P22] Latter were designed by Clarence Pearson Hornung in 1923. [Reichardt 2011]



 Alan Jay Prescott created APT New June (1996) based on Fournier le Jeune. In 2007, Tjorbjörn Olsson (T4) created Museum Fournier, inspired by a set of Rococo capitals designed by Pierre Simon Fournier le Jeune, ca. 1760. The Castcraft version of Fournier is called OPTI Fourquet. Joshua Darden's Corundum Text (2006) and typeface Griesshammer's free font Source Serif (2014, Adobe) are also based on Fournier. The ambitious PS Fournier  (2016, Stéphane Elbaz) is perhaps one of the best digital revivals. At B&P Swiss Typefaces, François Rappo published New Fournier (2011) based on the typography of Pierre-Simon Fournier. It comes in 24 styles.

 

Overall, Pierre-Simon Fournier's impact on typography is significant, as he helped to shape the standards of type design and usage in the 18th century, leaving a lasting mark on the field.


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German Typography History

By Carl Shank • August 31, 2026
German Typography History German typography has a particularly distinctive history because Germany was central to the invention of European movable-type printing, the development of Gothic/Blackletter typography, the rise of Fraktur, and later the modernist rejection of traditional German type. The story therefore moves dramatically from manuscript Gothic forms to highly ornate Fraktur, then to Bauhaus modernism and finally to contemporary digital typography. The history can be understood as a series of major transformations, as noted in ChatGPT, Gothic manuscript → Gutenberg → Schwabacher → Fraktur → Roman/Gothic duality → nineteenth-century industrial typography → Bauhaus modernism → New Typography → postwar modernism → digital pluralism. What makes German typography particularly fascinating is that the political and cultural meaning of type was unusually strong. Fraktur was not simply a letterform; over time it became associated with German language and identity, while the twentieth-century modernists deliberately sought to replace that historical visual language with an international, functional one. If you're studying European typography comparatively, German typography makes an especially useful contrast with Italian, French, Dutch, and English typography, because Germany's long attachment to Gothic type produced a very different trajectory from the Roman-type tradition that developed in Italy and subsequently dominated much of Western Europe. A number of Blogs I have written gives one an insight as to German historical typography and its central typographic characters, including typefaces and notes about Johannes Gutenberg, Marin Luther in Gothic type, Fraktur type and its extensive use in Germany, Rudolph Koch, the Bauhaus period with Herbert Bayer and Paul Renner, Futura, Jan Tschichold and Die Neue Typographie, and the influence of the Akzidenz-Grotesk font and its relationship to Helvetica, Univers, Neue Haas Grotesk, and Arial. Blogs that inform — Advance in Typography: Twentieth Century (Part 1) Type After Gutenberg: A Historical Sketch Theology of Type (2): Gutenberg to Early 1900s Early German Typography (Part 1) Early German Typography (Part 2 ) Blackletter Type & Universities About Sans-Serif Fonts Typography: A History of Machines Contemporary German Typography. Contemporary Germany has become one of Europe's major centers of type design. Important contemporary designers and foundries include Erik Spiekermann. Erik Spiekermann (born1947)( is a German art historian, typographer, designer, information architect and writer. He divides his time between Berlin, London and San Francisco. He runs Hacking Gutenberg, an experimental letterpress printing workshop in Berlin. He wrote Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works , a book on typography first published in 1993, revised 4th edition 2023. Spiekermann has designed numerous typefaces, both for sale and as part of corporate design programs. His typefaces include Berliner Grotesk (original is from 1913, digitization is from c. 1978), Fira Sans (designed in collaboration with Ralph du Carrois) for Firefox OS, released in 2013 under the SIL Open Font License), ITC Officina Sans and Serif fonts (1990), and FF Meta. FF Meta is especially interesting, as one of the fonts illustrated by axis-praxis for variable font use. It has 28 Instances offered through Adobe, from Condensed through Black, and a Variable font from Monotype. Spiekermann’s work emphasizes information clarity, signage, corporate identity, wayfinding, and digital typography. In German typography, wayfinding refers to the use of typography, symbols, color, spatial organization, and signs to help people navigate a physical environment. It is closely associated with Germany’s strong tradition of functionalist and systematic graphic design. Modern German typography is characterized by pluralism rather than a single national style. Contemporary designers freely use sans serifs, serif typefaces, variable fonts, neo-grotesques, geometric sans serifs, humanist sans serifs, contemporary revivals of Fraktur, experimental lettering, and digital display fonts. Fraktur remains visible in specialized contexts such as traditional breweries, historic businesses, newspapers and publications with historical associations, certificates, Blackletter music and cultural graphics, and Gothic/medieval-themed design, However, it is no longer the default German text type.

Italian Typography History (2)

By Carl Shank • August 29, 2026
Italian Typography and Futurism. One of Italy's most important contributions to twentieth-century graphic design came from Futurism. Beginning around 1909, Italian Futurists challenged conventional typography. The most important figure was Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. His Zang Tumb Tumb and related works used typography dynamically rather than simply as a vehicle for continuous reading. Zang Tumb Tumb is a sound and concrete poem appearing in journals between 1912 and 1914, when it was published as an artist’s book in Milan. It is an account of the Battle of Adrianople. The poem uses Parole in libertà (words in freedom; creative typography) and other poetic impressions of the events of the battle, including the sounds of gunfire and explosions. The work is now seen as a seminal work of modernist art, and an enormous influence on the emerging culture of European avant-garde print. (Wikipedia)
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