Garamond is a group of many serif typefaces, named for sixteenth-century Parisian engraver Claude Garamond, generally spelled as Garamont in his lifetime. Garamond-style typefaces are popular and particularly often used for book printing and body text.
Garamond's largest type, in "Gros Canon" size (40 pt), for H. D. L. Vervliet "a culmination of Renaissance design".
'Petit-texte' type intended for body text, created by Garamond.
De Aetna, printed by Aldus Manutius in 1495. Its roman type was the model for Garamond's.
A book printed by Robert Estienne in 1550. His graceful and delicate typefaces, based on the work of Aldus Manutius thirty-five years earlier, redefined practices in French printing. Below: his text type and Garamond's "gros canon" type, his largest, based on this type.
In typography, a serif is a small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol within a particular font or family of fonts. A typeface or "font family" making use of serifs is called a serif typeface, and a typeface that does not include them is sans-serif. Some typography sources refer to sans-serif typefaces as "grotesque" or "Gothic" and serif typefaces as "roman".
De Aetna, printed by Aldus Manutius
Title page printed by Robert Estienne
Gros Canon type by Garamond
1611 book, with arabesque ornament border
