Garamond, Claude

Garamond, Claude (klōd gärämôN') [key], 1480–1561, Parisian designer and maker of printing types. According to tradition he learned his art from Geofroy Tory. Types designed by Garamond were used in the printeries of the Estienne family, Colines, Plantin, and Bodoni, and types used by the Elzevir family were based on his designs. His royal Greek type (grecs du roi), designed for Francis I, imitated the Greek writing of a scholar of his time (Angelos Vergetios). His roman and italic types, however, were innovations in being designed as metal types, not as imitations of handwriting. His roman letter forms won general acceptance in France and elsewhere and were a chief influence in establishing the roman letter as standard, in place of the gothic or black letter. Some modern type designs given his name are not closely related to his, but are based on types that were mistakenly attributed to him.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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