Galliard (typeface)
Serif typeface / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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ITC Galliard is the name of a serif typeface designed by Matthew Carter and issued in 1978 by the Mergenthaler Linotype Company.[1]
Category | Serif |
---|---|
Classification | Old-style |
Designer(s) | Robert Granjon Matthew Carter |
Foundry | Linotype International Typeface Corporation |
Date released | 1978 |
Galliard is based on the sixteenth-century type of Robert Granjon.[2] According to Alexander Lawson, "The name Galliard stems from Granjon's own term for an 8-point font he cut about 1570. It undoubtedly refers to the style of the face, for the galliard was a lively dance of the period."[3] Explaining what drew him to Granjon's work, Carter wrote on some of his more characteristic letterforms: "looking at them, adjectives like 'spirited, 'tense' and 'vigorous' come to mind...it is easy to admire Granjon's work."[1]
Mike Parker, Director of Typographic Development at Mergenthaler Linotype, had been inspired by seeing the types of Granjon at the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp.[4][3] Matthew Carter, who joined Mergenthaler Linotype as a typeface designer in 1965, was also an admirer. His father, Harry Carter, had worked to itemise the museum's extensive collection of sixteenth-century punches and matrices in the 1950s, with his son occasionally helping.[5][6][7][8] Work continued on the typeface, sporadically, through the 1960s and 1970s. The typeface was released in 1978. With a glittering, crisp design, Galliard has been used both for body text and for headings. Galliard is notable for its 'pelican-beak' letter 'g', based on Granjon's Double Pica italic of 1570.[2]