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A look into the typeface, Centaur

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A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

abcdefghi jk lmnopqrs tuvwxyz

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

ab cd e f g h i j k lmnopq r s t uvwxyz

1 2 3 4 5 6 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

ff fi fl &

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A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

abcdefghi jk lmnopqrs tuvwxyz

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

ab cd e f g h i j k lmnopq r s t uvwxyz

1 2 3 4 5 6 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

ff fi fl &

Bruce Rogers, Centaur’s type designer, was “one of the greatest artificers of the book who ever lived,” says Francis Meynell, founder of the Nonesuch Press. Born in Lafayette, Indiana, in 1870, Rogers designed some of the finest books ever made, such as the Oxford Lectern Bible, The Centaur, T.E. Lawrence’s famouse translation of The Odyssey of Homer.

Rogers’ interst in typeface and book design formed when his cousin gave him a copy of John Ruskin’s Elements of Drawing at age 12. Other crucial influence that fed his fascination were Forest Hymn by Willaim Cullen Bryant. When Rogers saw the limited edition books printed by William Moris’s Kelmscott Press,he abandoned the prevalent idea that a book could be made beautiful through the work of an illustrator alone, and determined to use the curiosity not only to type and paper, but also toward a study of the physical form of printed books. From 1896 through 1900, Rogers worked as a book designer at Houghton Mifflin in Boston.

Rogers’s work showed great audacity and

subtlety, but even in these useful booksone may

see a certain grace, not easily defined. The most

remarkable example that demonstrates this is

the typeface, Centaur.

Creator

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Nicolas Jenson, 15th century designer of the Eusebius, which was Rogers’s inspiration, achieved acclaim as a publisher, printer, and type designer within his own lifetime. In 1468, he traveled to Venice and set up his press there. At that time, Johannes de Spira, Venice’s first printer, was granted the exclusive rights to print with roman type and produced the type that is one of the earliest classified as humanist because it has charactereistcs similar to calligraphic writing. After de Spira died in 1470, Jenson was free to use de Spira’s roman types and those of other great Venetian printers of the 15th century and began to produce his own groundbreaking type designs. Among Jenson’s most highly regarded works is the De Evangelica Præparatione in Eusebius. One of the finest examples of the pristine proportion, clarity, and lightness inherent in the Jenson face, the manuscript has continuesd to influence designers up to the present day. For istance, Eusebius became the foundation of Rogers’s 1914 creation, Centaur. Early uses of Centaur were exclusively for the signage and titling work produced at the Metropolitan Museum in New York as well as for Rogers’s personal book projects. It wasn’t until 1929 that a commercial version of Centaur was made available for machine composition by the English Monotype Company. In 1932, the Monotype version of Centaur first appeared in the book The Odyssey of Homer, one of Rogers’s most beautifully crafted books. A type designer at Adobe Systems, Robert Slimbach, also recreated a digital, multiple-mastered version of Jenson in 1990, called Adobe Jenson, based on the Eusebius type.

Origin

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Calligraphic writing. Book of hours late 1400s

Venetian printing. Battista Cingulano’s hand, 1450

Eusebius, 1470

Centaur, 1914

Adobe Jenson, 1990

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In the book sizes of the type, i.e., 18 point and below, the face disposes itself on the page with a unique grace, carrying the sense of the text with an easy and modest individuality. Rogers’ opinion on Centaur also is that

it is too definitely an italian Renaissance letter.

However, he thinks it is a little too elegant and thin for modern papers and methods of printing, and is seen at its best when printed on dampened hand-made or other antiquepapers, and with more impressions than you can ordinarily get a pressman to put on it.

Centaur is quite a revival of the Renaissance and humanist typeface. To create Centaur, Rogers looked at the work of Jenson, De Evangelica Præparatione and made pale impressions, called fugitive prints, from photographic enlargements of the typeface and then wrote over the lowercase letters with a broad pen.When he began to make enlargements, he was at once struck by the penlike character of the lowercase.The calligraphic basis of the design which evaded the eye in the smaller sizes is...

Centaur... beautifully seen in 72 point.

About

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beautifully seen in 72 point.“A crystal goblet typeface her purest type

is transparent to the readers and allows the

content and the beauty of the book as a

whole to be enjoyed without coloration or

distration.” Centaur in 15 point

Centaur

Humanist axis (axis inclined to left)

Rising crossbar, perpendicular to the stroke axis

Large aperture

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Characteristics

Centaurj y

Modulated stroke, Pen-formed terminals

Crisp terminalsSplayed, bilateral foot

Flat-foot serif

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The labeled characteristics of Centaur are unique to Renaissance letterforms which derive from the calligraphic handwriting of 14th century.

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When creating the digital versin of Adobe Jenson in 1990, Robert Slimbach studied photographic enlargements of several pages from the book. He was able to scrutinize the typeface, giving considerable attention to the hidden details that convey its warm and earthly cahracter. Slimbach cataloged and cross referenced examples of characters from Jenson’s printed work to distinguish between irregularities and the original type. The letterforms were then carefully retouched and further enlarged so the preliminary font could be drawn and digitized.

Basically Adobe Jenson is the retrieved of the

original, “combining the grace of the originals

with the refinement of digital technology.”

& Adobe Jenson

Centaur

More thick and thin contrast

Thinner stroke in general

The bowl of the R the same size as the lower bowl of the B

Centaur fits the modern and the digital use better than Adobe Jenson because Rogers made further alteration and adjustification to the original for such use.

BOutwardly extended leg; Achieves balance

The top bowl of the B smaller than the botton bowl; creates an optically balanced letter

The top and the bottom bowls Close in size

Adobe Jenson

Thicker stroke in general

The bowl of the R Not the same size as the lower bowl of the B

Adobe Jenson maintains more of the natural calligraphic quality of the original. B

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Centaur vs. Adobe Jenson

r jbfiner serif

Thicker serif

More crisp terminals

Larger counters

Smaller counters

Rounder terminals

w

b r jxii

ab c d e f g h i j k lmnopq r s t uvwxyz

j y

No flat-foot serifs

More hand- written and cursive

Flat-foot serif

w

Wider body of characters

abc def g hi jklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Slimbach used the chancery script Arrighi as well in 1522, as the model for Adobe Jenson Italic. Since Chancery italics are characteristically compressed, Slimbach felt this feature would interfere with the open character of the roman. Thus, he widened the digital italic incrementally.

yjxiii

The original Jenson font did not have an italic version. Thus, Rogers called upon the expertise of Frederic Warde in 1925 to devise a suitable italic letter as a companion to the roman version of Centaur. Warde made modifications to 15th-century chancery letters by a calligrapher, Ludovico degli Arrighi.

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Bigger counters and smaller capitals than the originals’.

Bigger counters and smaller capitals than the originals’.

Centaur vs. Adobe Jenson vs. Original Jenson

Heavier distribution of weight and thicker serifs than both Centaur and Adobe Jenson.

Obtrusive capital letters seen in context with the lowercase letters that tend to interrup reading.

The original

Jenson

Centaur

Adobe

Jenson

M Q ZM Q Z

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Justifications made on the original for both Centaur and Adobe Jenson for smoother reading.

Top internal serifs of the M eliminated

Excessively long tail of the Q eliminated

The width of the Z modified

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Bibliography

Sheilah M. Barrett, Revival of the Fittest: Digital Versions of Classic Typefaces (New York: RC Publications), 72-79.

Carter, Sebastian. Twentieth Century Type Designers. Great Britain: Lund Humphries, 2002

(A&A: Z250 A2 C364 1995 and Vault )

Bringhurst, Robert. The Elements of Typographic Style. Vancouver: Hartley and Marks, 1997.

(A&A: Z246 B745 1996 and Vault)

Revival of the Fittest: Digital Versions of Classic Typefaces, essays by Carolyn Annand ... [et al.]; edited by Philip B. Meggs and Roy McKelvey, New York: RC Publications, 2000, 72-79; 154-159.

(A&A: Z250.R45 2000)

http://www.linotype.com

http://www.fonts.com

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Designed by Soo Kim, fall 2010

For Typography 1 in the Communication Design program at Washington University in St. Louis.

Typefaces used include Centaur regular at 15/18/72 pt, bold italic oldstyle figures at 16 pt, Small Caps & Oldstyle Figures at 12 pt, Swash capitals at 100 pt and italic at 18pt; Adobe Jenson regular at 15/18/72 pt, italic at 18 pt; Perperpetua regular at 10/12 pt and bold at 10/12 pt.