France and Garamond

Th ough little happened in France to contribute to the fi rst several decades of

printing, the environment created by King Francis I’s patronage of the arts
brought about one of the greatest typefaces of all time.
Claude Garamond’s type, today known simply as Garamond, took cues from
Italian printers’ designs such as Jenson’s, but created a more even texture on
the page through a tighter letterfi t and smoother forms with even more
infl uence from the process of punchcutting.
Th roughout history, Garamond has been misattributed to many incarnations of
type originally designed by Jean Jannon. Today’s most popular reincarnation of
Garamond, Robert Slimbach’s Adobe Garamond, holds true to the form of
Garamond’s original type. But, Garamond’s design may have been strong
infl uenced by Antoine Augereau, under whom Garamond apprenticed, and
Geoff ry Tory, with whom Garamond worked.
Whatever the origin of Garamond’s design it became so popular that it is
credited for replacing textura throughout Europe, except for in Germany. Th is
popularity is due, in part, to the extraordinary quality of the typeface, but
Garamond had some advantages of distribution as well, both fortunate and
unfortunate. He was the fi rst to establish an independent type foundry for
selling cast type to printers. But also, because he died penniless, his widow sold
his punches and matrices, making his type more widely available.