VERSION 01
John Baskerville
Letter Founder & Master Printer
John Baskerville (1706-1775) was an English businessman whose entrepreneurial attentions included japanning and papier-mâché; he is, however, best remembered as a typographer and printer, not least for the design of the eponymous typeface which, to this very day, bears his name.
Baskerville was born in the village of Wolverley, near Kidderminster in Worcestershire, and worked as a printer in Birmingham. Baskerville printed works for the University of Cambridge and, although an atheist, printed a splendid folio bible in 1763. His typefaces were greatly admired by Benjamin Franklin, a printer and fellow member of the Royal Society of Arts, who took the designs back to the newly-created United States where they were adopted for most federal government publishing.
Baskerville was responsible for numerous innovations in printing, paper and ink production. He developed a technique which produced a smoother whiter paper which showcased his strong black type. He also pioneered a completely new style of typography, adding wide margins and generous leading to improve legibility.
"Having been an early admirer of the beauty of letters, I became insensibly desirous of contributing to the perfection of them. I formed to myself ideas of greater accuracy than had yet appeared, and had endeavoured to produce a set of types according to what I conceived to be their true proportion." -John Baskerville, preface to Milton, 1758 (Anatomy of a Typeface)
VERSION 02
John Baskerville
Letter Founder & Master Printer
JOHN BASKERVILLE (1706-1775) was an English businessman whose entrepreneurial attentions included japanning and papier-mâché; he is, however, best remembered as a typographer and printer, not least for the design of the eponymous typeface which, to this very day, bears his name.
Baskerville was born in the village of Wolverley, near Kidderminster in Worcestershire, and worked as a printer in Birmingham. Baskerville printed works for the University of Cambridge and, although an atheist, printed a splendid folio bible in 1763. His typefaces were greatly admired by Benjamin Franklin, a printer and fellow member of the Royal Society of Arts, who took the designs back to the newly-created United States, where they were adopted for most federal government publishing.
Baskerville was responsible for numerous innovations in printing, paper and ink production. He developed a technique which produced a smoother whiter paper which showcased his strong black type. He also pioneered a completely new style of typography, adding wide margins and generous leading to improve legibility.
"Having been an early admirer of the beauty of letters, I became insensibly desirous of contributing to the perfection of them. I formed to myself ideas of greater accuracy than had yet appeared, and had endeavoured to produce a set of types according to what I conceived to be their true proportion." -JOHN BASKERVILLE, PREFACE TO MILTON, 1758 (ANATOMY OF A TYPEFACE)
VERSION 03
John Baskerville
Letter Founder & Master Printer
John Baskerville (1706-1775) was an English businessman whose entrepreneurial attentions included japanning and papier-mâché; he is, however, best remembered as a typographer and printer, not least for the design of the eponymous typeface which, to this very day, bears his name.
Baskerville was born in the village of Wolverley, near Kidderminster in Worcestershire, and worked as a printer in Birmingham. Baskerville printed works for the University of Cambridge and, although an atheist, printed a splendid folio bible in 1763. His typefaces were greatly admired by Benjamin Franklin, a printer and fellow member of the Royal Society of Arts, who took the designs back to the newly-created United States, where they were adopted for most federal government publishing.
Baskerville was responsible for numerous innovations in printing, paper and ink production. He developed a technique which produced a smoother whiter paper which showcased his strong black type. He also pioneered a completely new style of typography, adding wide margins and generous leading to improve legibility.
"Having been an early admirer of the beauty of letters, I became insensibly desirous of contributing to the perfection of them. I formed to myself ideas of greater accuracy than had yet appeared, and had endeavoured to produce a set of types according to what I conceived to be their true proportion." -JOHN BASKERVILLE, PREFACE TO MILTON, 1758 (ANATOMY OF A TYPEFACE)