Bodoni
Giambattista Bodoni’s modern roman – vertical, high-contrast and elegant, like Empire architecture.
Bodoni and the Didot family in Paris pushed the roman towards ever greater contrast and geometric precision. Their books had wide margins and few ornaments, in the spirit of Neoclassicism.
The typeface needs good paper and fine printing so that the hairlines do not disappear. In the 20th century it became the typeface of fashion magazines.
Materials: Cast metal type
Manufacture: Cut in hundreds of variants at the ducal press in Parma.
A vertical stress and extreme contrast between thick stems and hairlines.
Thin, straight serifs without brackets.
Plenty of space on the page and wide margins in Bodoni’s own books.