The graceful restoration of a 200-year-old serif typeface shows the problem with digital fonts

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#TIA – Anyone who loves type as much as we do can’t fault the artistry of restoring Walbaum, but it’s still hard to top Didot.

“In the early 1800s, a talented German punchcutter by the name of Justus Enrich Walbaum created a typeface that signaled modernity. A departure from the Blackletter fonts that were common in German books at that time, Walbaum designed a “warm and stylish” Roman typeface that would become a favorite of publishers for its readability. Walbaum Antiqua, as it was called, was so superior that Johann Wolfgang von Goethe insisted that his books be printed in this typeface.

Despite its technical excellence, Walbaum has largely been forgotten, eclipsed by similar high-contrast serifs such as Didot and Bodoni, which are still commonly used in books and fashion magazines today. Apart from a few logos and publications, Walbaum isn’t exactly the top-of-mind font for most graphic designers.”

Read more at Quartz