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.
Melior