Comparing Two Typefaces
I chose Baskerville font and Didot font to compare. These two fonts interested me because Didot takes inspiration from Baskerville and comparing these two fonts show how they evolved over time. Baskerville font was developed in the 1750’s in Birmingham, England and is classified as a transitional font. Didot was developed from 1784-1811 in Paris, France.As well as both being Serifs, both fonts have a strong vertical stress and a large contrast between thick and thin. While Baskerville has lighter bracketing than previous fonts, Didot has no bracketing and is shaped to be more flat and boxy than Baskerville. As someone who knew very little about the technical details of different fonts, the Didot font was noticeably more modern looking than the Baskerville font. This is probably because the transition from Baskerville to Didot was about the same time in history as the enlightenment, so as people became more focused on art and science, people wanted a new, more artistic font to use. Its interesting to me that Didot was created in Paris because it is often used by designers such as Christian Dior, many of which are based in Paris. I never knew that fonts used in everyday life had such a long history.
