Non-Designer’s Type Book, The, Second Edition

Oldstyle

The characteristics of the oldstyle typefaces originally developed out of the traditional handlettering form, following the way the scribes held the pens and drew letters. When moveable type was developed in the mid 1400s, the letterforms that were carved out of metal resembled what everyone was familiar with—letters formed with a broad-tipped pen held at an angle. At that point in history, the only printed material was books. Big books. Books that sat on lecterns and were read aloud from. Since the only project for a printing press was to create books (there were no business cards or bread wrappers yet), the first typefaces were eminently readable because that was their only job.

Oldstyle typefaces tend to have a warm, graceful appearance ...