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Caslon is a group of serif typefaces designed by William Caslon I (1692–1766), and various revivals thereof. Caslon shares the irregularity characteristic of Dutch Baroque types. It is characterized by short ascenders and descenders, bracketed serifs, moderately high contrast, robust texture, and moderate modulation of stroke. The A has a concave hollow at the apex, the G is without a spur. Caslon's italics have a rhythmic calligraphic stroke. Characters A, V, and W have an acute slant. The italic p, Q, v, w, and z all have a suggestion of a swash. ==History== Caslon began as an engraver of ornamental designs on firearms and other metalwork. The accuracy of his work came to the attention of prominent London printers, who advanced him money to carve steel punches for printing. His earliest design dates to 1722. Punchcutting was a very difficult technique and many of the techniques used were kept secret by punchcutters or passed on from father to son. As British printers had little success or experience of making their own types, they were forced to use equipment bought from the Netherlands, or France. Caslon is cited as the first original typeface of English origin. Type historians Stanley Morison and Alfred F. Johnson, a scientist who worked at the British Museum, point out the close similarity of Caslon's design to the Dutch Fell types cut by Voskens and other type cut by the Dutchman Van Dyck.〔Stanley Morison, ''A tally of types'', Cambridge at the University Press, second edition, 1973, pag 24-27〕 Dutch fonts were in use by several printers in England at that time. The Oxford University Press used the "Fell-types", character cut by the Dutch typefounder Voskens. The Cambridge University Press had received in January 1698 some 52 series of alphabets from Holland, all cut by Van Dyck.〔Mr.S.C. Roberts, ''History of the Cambridge University Press'', p. 77〕 But even before that in 1697 they used the text-sized roman and italic of Van Dyck in an edition of ''Gratulatio Cantabrigiences''.〔Alfred F. Johnson, ''A note on William Caslon'', in: ''The Monotype Recorder'', vol. 35, no. 4, 1936-7, pag. 6〕 John Nichols, writing in 1782, claims that the first fonts cut by William Caslon were: * Arabic, used in a "Psalter" in 1725 * Hebrew, used for John Selden's collected works in 1726. * Koptic, used for the bi-language ''Pentateuch'' of Dr. David Wilkins in Latin and Hebrew in 1731 There is much uncertainty about the first roman and italic Latin characters cut by Caslon himself. Nicols writes: ''"he (Caslon) cut the beautiful font of English which is used in printing Selden's Works () 1726."'' Nicols describes this character as far superior to contemporary Dutch fonts used in English books at this period. However, Johnson concluded in 1936 that this was incorrect, and that the earliest use of a roman and italic cut by Caslon could be identified in books printed by William Bowyer in: * 1725: roman and italic Pica-size (modern 12pt), in the notes in ''Anacreon'' in Greek and Latin. * 1726: roman and italic, Pica-size again in ''Reliquæ Baxterianæ'' (a collection of work by clergyman Richard Baxter) * 1730: roman and italic, English-size (modern 14 pt), in the preface of Richard Baker's ''Chronicles of the Kings of England''. The text-part is set in the Caslon Pica. The Caslon types were distributed throughout the British Empire, including British North America. Much of the decayed appearance of early American printing is thought to be due to oxidation caused by long exposure to seawater during transport from England to the Americas. Caslon's types were immediately successful and used in many historic documents, including the U.S. Declaration of Independence. After William Caslon I’s death, the use of his types diminished, but had a revival between 1840–80 as a part of the British Arts and Crafts movement. The Caslon design is still widely used today. Caslon's original designs do not include a bold weight. This is because it was unusual to use bold weights in typesetting during the 18th century, and Caslon never designed one for body text, although some of his titling-size fonts are quite bold. For emphasis, italics or a larger point size, and sometimes caps and small caps would be used instead. Besides regular text fonts, Caslon created blackletter types, which were also printed on his specimen. These could be used for purposes such as title pages and drop caps. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Caslon」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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