Solus (typeface)

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Eric Gill's artwork for the capitals of Solus, showing an alternative 'M' at bottom right similar to that of Gill Sans. Solus artwork.jpg
Eric Gill's artwork for the capitals of Solus, showing an alternative 'M' at bottom right similar to that of Gill Sans.

Solus is a serif typeface that was designed by English sculptor and stonemason Eric Gill for the British Monotype Corporation and released in 1929. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Solus has a structure of straight, regular serifs reminiscent of slab-serif typefaces of the nineteenth century, but with a reduced build giving an impression of crispness. [6] Along with these characteristics, Solus bears the distinct personality of Gill's characteristic preferences in letterforms, such as the pointed end to the top left of the letter 'a'. [7] [8] [9] James Mosley describes Solus as "essentially a mechanistic type — a ‘light Egyptian’", a conclusion also reached by editor Robert Harling in his book on Gill's work. [10] [lower-alpha 1]

Solus was not particularly popular during the metal type period, which Harling suggests was because it was too similar to Gill's pre-existing Perpetua, not having an italic and having little appeal in display use, unlike more aggressive slab serif designs. [12] Gill's Joanna, designed some years later in a similar style but with an italic, has become much more popular. [10]

Solus has not been digitised by Monotype; an unofficial revival has been made by the company K-Type. [10] [13] Financier, by Kris Sowersby, is a respected revival loosely influenced by Solus, Perpetua and Joanna. [14] [15] Its optical size designed for small-size text is influenced by Solus and Joanna more while its display size more recalls Perpetua. [16] [17]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monotype Imaging</span> American typesetting and typeface design company

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perpetua (typeface)</span> Serif typeface

Perpetua is a serif typeface that was designed by English sculptor and stonemason Eric Gill for the British Monotype Corporation. Perpetua was commissioned at the request of Stanley Morison, an influential historian of printing and adviser to Monotype around 1925, at a time when Gill's reputation as a leading artist-craftsman was high. Perpetua was intended as a crisp, contemporary design not following any specific historic model, with a structure influenced by Gill's experience of carving lettering for monuments and memorials. Perpetua is commonly used for covers and headings and also sometimes for body text; it has been particularly popular in fine book printing. Perpetua was released with characters for the Greek alphabet and a matching set of titling capitals for headings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joanna (typeface)</span> Typeface designed by Eric Gill

Joanna is a serif typeface designed by Eric Gill (1882–1940) in the period 1930–31, and named for one of his daughters. Gill chose Joanna for setting An Essay on Typography, a book by Gill on his thoughts on typography, typesetting, and page design. He described it as "a book face free from all fancy business".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monotype Grotesque</span> Grotesque sans-serif typeface

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plantin (typeface)</span> Typeface

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imprint (typeface)</span> Typeface

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ehrhardt (typeface)</span> Font

Ehrhardt is an old-style serif typeface released by the British branch of the Monotype Corporation in 1938. Ehrhardt is a modern adaptation of printing types of "stout Dutch character" from the Dutch Baroque tradition sold by the Ehrhardt foundry in Leipzig. These were cut by the Hungarian-Transylvanian pastor and punchcutter Miklós (Nicholas) Tótfalusi Kis while in Amsterdam in the period from 1680 to 1689.

<i>A Tally of Types</i>

A Tally of Types is a book on typography authored by the type designer Stanley Morison. It was first published in 1953, and showcases significant typeface designs produced during Morison's tenure at the Lanston Monotype Corporation for their hot-metal typesetting machines during the 1920s and 1930s in England.

Frank Hinman Pierpont was an American engineer and typeface designer. He worked primarily in England for the Monotype Corporation of Britain.

References

  1. Fiona MacCarthy (16 June 2011). Eric Gill. Faber & Faber. pp. 292–3. ISBN   978-0-571-26582-4.
  2. Allan Haley (15 September 1992). Typographic Milestones. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 91–8. ISBN   978-0-471-28894-7.
  3. Jason Tselentis; Allan Haley; Richard Poulin; Tony Seddon; Gerry Leonidas; Ina Saltz; Kathryn Henderson; Tyler Alterman (1 February 2012). Typography, Referenced: A Comprehensive Visual Guide to the Language, History, and Practice of Typography. Rockport Publishers. p. 89. ISBN   978-1-61058-205-6.
  4. Mosley, James. "Eric Gill's Perpetua Type". Fine Print.
  5. "Eric Gill's Solus Type". The London Mercury. 1935.
  6. Brewer, Roy (1973). Eric Gill: The Man Who Loved Letters. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield. pp. 70–71. ISBN   9780874711486.
  7. Sandford, Christopher (1982). "A Note on the Golden Cockerel Type". Matrix . 2: 23–26.
  8. Mosley, James. "Eric Gill's R: the Italian connection". Type Foundry. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
  9. Mosley, James. "Eric Gill and the Cockerel Press". Upper & Lower Case. International Typeface Corporation. Archived from the original on 29 July 2012. Retrieved 7 October 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  10. 1 2 3 Bates, Keith. "The Non Solus Story". K-Type. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  11. Tracy, Walter. Letters of Credit. p. 82.
  12. Harling, Robert (1975). The Letter Forms and Type Designs of Eric Gill (1st U.S. ed.). Westerham, Kent: Eva Svensson. pp. 51–58. ISBN   0-903696-04-5. see also Harling's The Type Designs of Eric Gill in Alphabet and Image, 1948
  13. Bates, Keith. "Non-Solus: 2012 Update". K-Type. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  14. "Financier Typeface Family « TDC TOKYO ENG".
  15. "Best Awards - Klim Type Foundry and The Financial Times. / Financier Typeface Family". Archived from the original on 2015-10-19.
  16. "Financier: a new typeface family for the Financial Times - Creative Review". 3 November 2014.
  17. "A New Font is Giving the Financial Times a Smart, Luxurious Update". 27 September 2016.
  1. Walter Tracy in contrast commented: "it is hard to accept the suggestion that the egyptian form was in Eric Gill's mind...[Solus] is really no more than a Perpetua-like roman unhappily fitted with a thickened version of the serifs of Monotype Bodoni 135, recommended to Gill by Stanley Morison." [11]