4 ms·

Wow. It's quite pretty, but it shows the wretched excess of nineteenth century typography.

chickenfries 9y ago
Wretched excess? I'm not an expert on 19th C typography, but I imagine that typography like this wowed people back then, and imparted a kind of authority and grandeur for the businesses that used them.
- thefontguy 9y ago
  Pretty excited to see how 21st C creatives leverage color font technologies to wow people these days ;) See https://www.colorfonts.wtf https://www.colorfonts.wtf
ygra 9y ago
Well, it's display type, suitable for posters and the like. I'm not sure that use is fundamentally different now. Typography intended to be read instead of standing alone as an art piece was legible in the 19th century as well. Look at it as a kind of low-tech WordArt. I especially like the sort-of gradient in the Clarendon example.
NikolaeVarius 9y ago
Almost seems like modern web design.
tribby 9y ago
> wretched excess of nineteenth century typography. I feel compelled to defend nineteenth century typography here :) I will point to the work of pierre & fermin didot[1]. arguably some of the most enduring in type history - currently it's used a lot in fashion. you just don't like the style of these examples, which is totally reasonable. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didot_(typeface) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didot_(typeface)
- jejones3141 9y ago
  Point well taken re Didot. Perhaps I should have said Victorian.
  - tribby 9y ago
    I disagree with that one too, but maybe we have different taste. akzidenz-grotesk[1] was first released in 1898 and it will probably look modern to you (it was the basis for helvetica). there were also a lot of titling gothic fonts that came over from germany and britain and are still used today in tons of movies and more cinematic advertisements. I'm not trying to create an argument or anything, but if you look at type history most of it was sorted out around that very period, probably because the price and expertise required for printing was going down. so you'll find typefaces you like (and don't like) in almost every era. the modern typefaces we know and love today are mostly remixes from a few highly productive periods. we've been making tiny variations on existing fonts for centuries -- lettering by bodoni is from the renaissance but it's so contemporary and magazine-y. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akzidenz-Grotesk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akzidenz-Grotesk

Wretched excess? I'm not an expert on 19th C typography, but I imagine that typography like this wowed people back then, and imparted a kind of authority and grandeur for the businesses that used them.

thefontguy 9y ago
Pretty excited to see how 21st C creatives leverage color font technologies to wow people these days ;) See https://www.colorfonts.wtf https://www.colorfonts.wtf

ygra 9y ago

Well, it's display type, suitable for posters and the like. I'm not sure that use is fundamentally different now. Typography intended to be read instead of standing alone as an art piece was legible in the 19th century as well. Look at it as a kind of low-tech WordArt. I especially like the sort-of gradient in the Clarendon example.

NikolaeVarius 9y ago

Almost seems like modern web design.

tribby 9y ago

> wretched excess of nineteenth century typography. I feel compelled to defend nineteenth century typography here :) I will point to the work of pierre & fermin didot[1]. arguably some of the most enduring in type history - currently it's used a lot in fashion. you just don't like the style of these examples, which is totally reasonable. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didot_(typeface) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didot_(typeface)

jejones3141 9y ago
Point well taken re Didot. Perhaps I should have said Victorian.
- tribby 9y ago
  I disagree with that one too, but maybe we have different taste. akzidenz-grotesk[1] was first released in 1898 and it will probably look modern to you (it was the basis for helvetica). there were also a lot of titling gothic fonts that came over from germany and britain and are still used today in tons of movies and more cinematic advertisements. I'm not trying to create an argument or anything, but if you look at type history most of it was sorted out around that very period, probably because the price and expertise required for printing was going down. so you'll find typefaces you like (and don't like) in almost every era. the modern typefaces we know and love today are mostly remixes from a few highly productive periods. we've been making tiny variations on existing fonts for centuries -- lettering by bodoni is from the renaissance but it's so contemporary and magazine-y. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akzidenz-Grotesk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akzidenz-Grotesk