Century Type Family

Century

Category	Serif
Classification	Didone, Scotch Modern
Designer(s)	Linn Boyd and Morris Fuller Benton
Foundry	American Type Founders
Date released	1894–1923
Variations	Century Expanded, Century Schoolbook, Century Old Style, Century Catalogue
Shown here	Century Schoolbook

Century Roman

Category	Serif
Classification	Modern
Designer(s)	Linn Boyd Benton
Commissioned by	Theodore Low De Vinne for the Century Magazine
Foundry	American Type Founders
Date created	1894
Date released	November, 1895 issue of Century Magazine

Century

Category	Serif
Classification	Modern
Designer(s)	Morris Fuller Benton
Commissioned by	American Type Founders
Foundry	American Type Founders
Date created	1900
Date released	1900–1910
Re-issuing foundries	Barnhart Brothers & Spindler, Linotype, Intertype, Monotype, Ludlow
Design based on	Century Roman + Bruce #16 Roman
Also known as	Century Expanded

Century Oldstyle

Category	Serif
Classification	Old Style
Designer(s)	Morris Fuller Benton
Commissioned by	American Type Founders
Foundry	American Type Founders
Date created	1909
Date released	1909–1915
Re-issuing foundries	Linotype, Intertype, Monotype
Design based on	Century Roman + Caslon
Also known as	Old Style No. 9 (Linotype)

Century Catalogue

Category	Serif
Classification	Modified Old Style
Designer(s)	Morris Fuller Benton
Commissioned by	American Type Founders
Foundry	American Type Founders
Date created	1917
Date released	1917
Design based on	Century Expanded

Century Schoolbook

Category	Serif
Classification	Transitional
Designer(s)	Morris Fuller Benton
Commissioned by	Ginn & Company
Foundry	American Type Founders
Date created	1918
Date released	1918–1923
Re-issuing foundries	Linotype, Intertype, Monotype, Ludlow
Design based on	Century Expanded
Also known as	Century Modern (Ludlow)

Century is a family of serif type faces particularly intended for body text. The family originates from a first design, Century Roman cut by American Type Founders designer Linn Boyd Benton in 1894 for master printer Theodore Low De Vinne, for use in his Century magazine. ATF rapidly expanded it into a very large family, first by Linn Boyd and later by his son Morris.

Century is based on the "Scotch" genre, a style of type of British origin which had been popular in the United States from the early nineteenth century and is part of the "Didone" genre of type popular through the entire nineteenth century. Its design emphasises crispness and elegance, with strokes ending in fine tapers, ball terminals and crisp, finely pointed serifs. However, compared to many earlier typefaces in the genre, stroke contrast is quite low, creating a less sharp and highly readable structure. With ATF no longer operating, a wide variety of variants and revivals with varying features and quality are available.

Despite originating in the nineteenth century, use of the typeface remains strong for periodicals, textbooks, and literature. The Supreme Court of the United States requires that briefs be typeset in Century family type. According to Charles Shaw, "The rugged simplicity of the Century family of types has made it an enduring favorite of American typographers for almost one hundred years. Beginning as foundry type, Century has withstood a series of technical transformations into Linotype, Monotype, Ludlow, phototype, transfer type, digital type, and Xerox-like 'toner type'."

Characteristics of this typeface are:

lower case: curl ending in a ball terminal on top of letter c. Ball terminal on hook of f, ear of g, and tail of j.

upper case: curled tail on the capital R and reflexive curled tail on the capital Q. Prominent top spur on capital C.

figures: curl ending in a ball terminal on both tails of 3, and on single tail of 2, 5, 6 and 9.

Theodore Low De Vinne, publisher of the Century Magazine, wanted a more legible font for his magazine. He commissioned his friend Linn Boyd Benton from the newly formed American Type Founders to devise such a face. Over the course of the nineteenth century, largely because of the influence of Bodoni, common printing fonts had become thin, making a weak impression on the page. De Vinne and aesthete William Morris decried this “growing effeminacy” and called for a reversion to blacker faces. The face L.B. Benton produced, Century Roman, had a larger x-height than most faces and thicker hair-lines than was common, yet the proportions of a condensed face because De Vinne believed this to be more legible. This was made only in foundry type and later an accompanying face of normal width was produced by L.B. Benton, called variously Century Broad Face or Century No. 2. Despite being the original member of the Century family, it is not popular compared to the later members of the family with more normal proportions.

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Wikipedia