Trajan (typeface)

Last updated
Adobe Trajan
Trajan typeface specimen.svg
Category Serif
Classification Incised
Designer(s) Carol Twombly and Robert Slimbach [1]
Foundry Adobe Type

Trajan is a serif typeface designed in 1989 by Carol Twombly for Adobe. [2] [1]

Contents

The design is based on the letterforms of capitalis monumentalis or Roman square capitals, as used for the inscription at the base of Trajan's Column from which the typeface takes its name. Trajan is an all-capitals typeface, as the Romans did not use lowercase letters. Twombly created the design taking inspiration from a full-size picture of a rubbing of the inscription. [3] It is well known for appearing on many film posters. [4]

Background

A drawing and a photograph of a carving (in Hopton Wood stone) by Eric Gill, made in the early twentieth century, inspired by the "Trajan" capitals on Trajan's Column. Trajan (2959610060).jpg
A drawing and a photograph of a carving (in Hopton Wood stone) by Eric Gill, made in the early twentieth century, inspired by the "Trajan" capitals on Trajan's Column.

The capitals on Trajan's Column have long been an inspiration to many artists and students of lettering. [5] [6] The calligrapher and type designer Edward Johnston in his book Writing & Illuminating & Lettering (1906) wrote that "the Roman capitals have held the supreme place among letters for readableness and beauty. They are the best forms for the grandest and most important inscriptions." [7] [8] Trajan letterforms were used for many years for signs in British public buildings, including government offices. [9] [10]

Twombly's translation of the Trajan inscription into type is quite crisp and faithful. Many looser interpretations (often with an invented lowercase) predate Twombly's, particularly Emil Rudolf Weiss' "Weiss" of 1926, Frederic Goudy's Forum Title, Hadriano and "Goudy Trajan", and Diotima by Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse, while Warren Chappell's "Trajanus" of 1939, while having similar forms for capitals has a markedly medieval lowercase. [11] Many other examples of lettering and typefaces are based on Roman capitals, for instance lettering made under the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. [6] Alastair Johnston's 1990 review of Trajan noted this heritage, saying that it "outdoes anything old Fred Goudy ever produced." [12]

Trajan was designed for display instead of printed text – specifically for use in large sizes. [1]

Twombly's digitisation of Trajan has become very popular, as seen in its widespread presence on movie posters, television shows, and book covers. [4] A bold weight was added to Trajan when it was made digital. [1]

Twombly retired from Adobe and type design in 1999, [13] but Adobe has continued to release versions in consultation with her. Trajan Pro was the initial OpenType version, which added central European language support and added small caps in the lowercase slots. In 2012 the existing OpenType version was significantly revised as "Trajan Pro 3," with Robert Slimbach adding four additional weights as well as Cyrillic and Greek glyphs. [2] [1] [14] Adobe has also released a "Trajan Sans" companion face, forming a font superfamily. [15] Neither version supports the archaic Latin vowels long I or apex-V.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Optima</span> 1958 typeface by Hermann Zapf

Optima is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Hermann Zapf and released by the D. Stempel AG foundry, Frankfurt, West Germany in 1958.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sans-serif</span> Typeface classification for letterforms without serifs

In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif, gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than serif typefaces. They are often used to convey simplicity and modernity or minimalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garamond</span> Typeface family

Garamond is a group of many serif typefaces, named for sixteenth-century Parisian engraver Claude Garamond, generally spelled as Garamont in his lifetime. Garamond-style typefaces are popular and particularly often used for book printing and body text.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frederic Goudy</span> American printer, artist and type designer (1865–1947)

Frederic William Goudy was an American printer, artist and type designer whose typefaces include Copperplate Gothic, Goudy Old Style and Kennerley. He was one of the most prolific of American type designers and his self-named type continues to be one of the most popular in America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnston (typeface)</span> Sans-serif typeface

Johnston is a sans-serif typeface designed by and named after Edward Johnston. The typeface was commissioned in 1913 by Frank Pick, commercial manager of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London, as part of his plan to strengthen the company's corporate identity. Johnston was originally created for printing, but it rapidly became used for the enamel station signs of the Underground system as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman square capitals</span> Ancient Romance style of writing.

Roman square capitals, also called capitalis monumentalis, inscriptional capitals, elegant capitals and capitalis quadrata, are an ancient Roman form of writing, and the basis for modern capital letters. Square capitals are characterized by sharp, straight lines, supple curves, thick and thin strokes, angled stressing and incised serifs. When written in documents this style is known as Latin book hand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Myriad (typeface)</span> Sans-serif typeface family

Myriad is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Robert Slimbach and Carol Twombly for Adobe Systems. Myriad was intended as a neutral, general-purpose typeface that could fulfill a range of uses and have a form easily expandable by computer-aided design to a large range of weights and widths.

Robert Joseph Slimbach is Principal Type Designer at Adobe, Inc., where he has worked since 1987. He has won many awards for his digital typeface designs, including the rarely awarded Prix Charles Peignot from the Association Typographique Internationale, the SoTA Typography Award, and repeated TDC2 awards from the Type Directors Club. His typefaces are among those most commonly used in books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carol Twombly</span> American designer (born 1959)

Carol Twombly is an American designer, best known for her type design. She worked as a type designer at Adobe Systems from 1988 through 1999, during which time she designed, or contributed to the design of, many typefaces, including Trajan, Myriad and Adobe Caslon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe Jenson</span> Typeface

Adobe Jenson is an old-style serif typeface drawn for Adobe Systems by its chief type designer Robert Slimbach. Its Roman styles are based on a text face cut by Nicolas Jenson in Venice around 1470, and its italics are based on those created by Ludovico Vicentino degli Arrighi fifty years later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multiple master fonts</span> Extension to Adobe Systems Type 1 PostScript fonts

Multiple master fonts are an extension to Adobe Systems' Type 1 PostScript fonts, now superseded by the advent of OpenType and, in particular, the introduction of OpenType Font Variations in OpenType 1.8, also called variable fonts.

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

Minion is a serif typeface released in 1990 by Adobe Systems. Designed by Robert Slimbach, it is inspired by late Renaissance-era type and intended for body text and extended reading. Minion's name comes from the traditional naming system for type sizes, in which minion is between nonpareil and brevier, with the type body 7pt in height. As the historically rooted name indicates, Minion was designed for body text in a classic style, although slightly condensed and with large apertures to increase legibility. Slimbach described the design as having "a simplified structure and moderate proportions." The design is slightly condensed, although Slimbach has said that this was intended not for commercial reasons so much as to achieve a good balance of the size of letters relative to the ascenders and descenders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lithos</span> Typeface

Lithos is a glyphic sans-serif typeface designed by Carol Twombly in 1989 for Adobe Systems. Lithos is inspired by the unadorned, geometric letterforms of the engravings found on Ancient Greek public buildings. The typeface consists of only capital letters, no lowercase, and comes in five weights, without italics.

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

Arno, or Arno Pro, is a serif type family created by Robert Slimbach at Adobe intended for professional use. The name refers to the river that runs through Florence, a centre of the Italian Renaissance. Arno is an old-style serif font, drawing inspiration from a variety of 15th and 16th century typefaces. Slimbach has described the design as a combination of the period's Aldine and Venetian styles, with italics inspired by the calligraphy and printing of Ludovico degli Arrighi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe Originals</span>

The Adobe Originals program is a series of digital typefaces created by Adobe Systems from 1989 for professional use, intended to be of extremely high design quality while offering a large feature set across many languages. Many are strongly influenced by research into classic designs from the past and calligraphy. Adobe Originals fonts are sold separately or with Adobe products such as InDesign.

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

Utopia is the name of a transitional serif typeface designed by Robert Slimbach and released by Adobe Systems in 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goudy Sans</span> Typeface

Goudy Sans is a sans-serif typeface designed by Frederic Goudy around 1929–1931 and published by Lanston Monotype.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Display typeface</span> Font that is used at large sizes for headings

A display typeface is a typeface that is intended for use at large sizes for headings, rather than for extended passages of body text.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 McNeil, Paul (2017). The Visual History of Type. London: Laurence King. pp. 478–479. ISBN   978-1-78067-976-1.
  2. 1 2 Berry, John. "Trajan 3 Pro specimen" (PDF). Adobe Systems . Retrieved 18 October 2016.
  3. Riggs, Tamye (12 June 2014). "The Adobe Originals Silver Anniversary Story: Stone, Slimbach, and Twombly launch the first Originals".
  4. 1 2 "TYPO Talks » Blog Archiv » Yves Peters: Trajan in Movie Posters". Archived from the original on 2018-07-06. Retrieved 2018-07-06.
  5. Zhukov, Maxim. "The Trajan Letter in Russia and America". Typejournal.ru. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  6. 1 2 Nash, John. "In Defence of the Roman Letter" (PDF). Journal of the Edward Johnston Foundation. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
  7. Tam, Keith (2002). Calligraphic tendencies in the development of sanserif types in the twentieth century (PDF). Reading: University of Reading (MA thesis). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-06. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
  8. Johnston, Edward (1906). Writing & Illuminating & Lettering. Macmillan. pp.  268–269, 384, 391.
  9. Mosley, James (1964). "Trajan Revived". Motif: 17–48.
  10. Mosley, James. "Number Ten". Typefoundry (blog). Retrieved 14 July 2015.
  11. Shaw, Paul (2017). Revival Type: Digital Typefaces Inspired by the Past. Yale University Press. pp. 18–24. ISBN   978-0-300-21929-6.
  12. Riggs, Tamye. "The Adobe Originals Silver Anniversary Story: A community perspective on the Originals program". Typekit. Adobe Systems. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  13. Riggs, Tamye. "The Adobe Originals Silver Anniversary Story: How the Originals endured in an ever-changing industry". Typekit blog. Adobe. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
  14. Brown, Tim (15 November 2012). "Trajan Pro replaced by new, improved Trajan Pro 3".
  15. Brown, Tim (21 March 2012). "Inscriptional faces from Adobe Type".