Didot
Credits
- Designer(s)
- Firmin Didot
- Foundry(ies)
- None. Original only found in printed form.
- Release Year
- 1783
- Country of Origin
- France
- Original Format
- Metal (Machine Composition)
- Distributor(s)
- Linotype, Hoefler & Frere-Jones, Adobe, Monotype, LetterPerfect, Hand-in-Hand, Canada Type, BA Graphics, URW++
Background
Modern typefaces, characterized by consistently horizontal stress, flat and unbracketed serifs, and a high contrast between thin and thick strokes, were the final step in typography’s two-hundred-year journey away from calligraphy. In the late eighteenth century the style was perfected, and became forever associated with two typographic giants: in Parma, Giambattista Bodoni (1740-1813), and in Paris, Firmin Didot (1764-1836). Didot was a member of the Parisian dynasty that dominated French typefounding for two centuries, and he’s remembered today as the namesake of a series of Neoclassical typefaces that exquisitely captured the Modern style.
This typeface has many renditions done by many type designers, but the original is still only available in print form.