Plato’s Hat

Revival of the Caslon Old Face

a process book

Specifications

Text Typeface
Weight: Regular
Stroke Endings: Serif
Contrast: Translation
Width: Normal

TYPEWEST
2019

William Caslon

1692 - 1766 / London

English typefounder who, between 1720 and 1726, designed the typeface that bears his name. His work helped to modernize the book, making it a separate creation rather than a printed imitation of the old hand-produced book.

first week

I am asked to find a book that is printed before the 1950s. I had already a book printed in 1907 called The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith. This is a novel, originally published in 1766. It is one of the most popular and widely read 18th-century novels among Victorians. I didn't pick this particular book with a specific intention. Honestly, I couldn't even see the difference between similar types. That is why revival is so important for me to understand letterforms in detail.

The typeface has interesting features such as lowercase “a” has so tiny bowl with a serif that is not identical to other serifs. Also, d and b don't have the same kind of serifs. (This is from my first week notes. So I have learned that “b” and “d” have no same serifs.) These were my first impressions of my type. I started sketching right after finding the book. I thought we will go by sketches and we would digitalize them. This was my revival understanding, but I have learned that revival doesn't start with sketching. It starts with scanning.

second week

Scans

Scanning was the first step of revival. I started scanning as I am told by James and Graham. I figured out that my scans were not enough to see details. I wasted time with low-res scans. I was supposed to scan them in 600dpi at least.

Challenges

Blur Scans

Axis?

Tips:

Don’t scan your book with a low-res scanner. I wasted time with bad quality scans.

Find your original specimen catalog as soon as possible to see characters more clearly.

third week

before finding original specimen

after finding original specimen

I talked to Steven Coles about my book's type specimen. He suggested me to look at Caslon, Miller and Richard, and Stephenson Blake catalogs from around 1900. Finally, I found it in Caslon Catalog. Typeface called Caslon Old Face.

I figured out that every size and weight designed with little differences. 10-Point(Long Primer) Old Face matches with the typeface in my book. The catalog is printed more clearly than my book. So I got other details and edit my drawings. It was a milestone in my revival.

fourth week

I had some problems with letter g. Curves were not satisfying. I worked on it for whole hour. I checked original source and my book scans also I searched for similar typefaces on internet to understand the form of g. Finally I got a good form. I was not sure about descender, ascender and cap heights. I asked Graham if is there any standard about the heights of them. He said it is not a big deal for now. Just go with your scans.

fifth week

This week I have learned that curvy shapes should be thicker than straight lines to make them optically the same.

I draw serifs very sharp as wedge serifs. But Graham suggested me to think about curvy serif connections. My revival type is a text type. The curvy serifs look almost the same but nicer in small sizes. I missed that because I was looking at it in large sizes.

Letterform Development

sixth week

Until the 6th week, I thought kerning and spacing were the same things, but not. (probably I missed it when it was explained in early weeks.)

I have had hard times with some of the letters but I just kept going drawing very roughly and edit it until finding a good form.

seventh week

Capical C and J are not the same with lowercase versions

Small bowls can be a problem while printing in text sizes

I started drawing numbers. While drawing "2" I had hard times because I had no idea about the form of number 2. My scan was not enough to see the form of it. Also, I couldn't find uppercase Q in my book. I asked Mo to send me her scans, who is reviving Caslon Old Face too.

While making uppercase J, C and Z, I copied lowercase versions and enlarge them to make uppercases. But they are completely different.