Modernised Old Style (typeface)

Old Style was the name given to serif typefaces cut in the nineteenth century that were made in imitation of earlier styles of typeface, particularly the Caslon typeface cut by William Caslon from the 1720s.

Starting from around 1860, the Edinburgh typefounders Miller & Richard released a series of fonts inspired by the style of Caslon (and also, according to Nesbitt, Baskerville) but with more delicacy and precision, a higher x-height (larger-appearing lower-case letters) and a vertical stress (the top of the round letters uniformly the thinnest part of the letter, rather than at a position of roughly eleven o'clock), reflecting changes in aesthetic tastes since the early eighteenth century. The "Old Style" designs of Miller & Richard, reportedly cut by the Scottish punchcutter Alexander Phemister, were rapidly copied and imitated by many other typefounders, including by the new hot metal typesetting companies Monotype and Linotype. It was extremely successful; the 1880s Bibliography of Printing describes its popularity as "unsurpassed in the annals of type-founding", and Monotype's copy was their second best-selling typeface of all time in hot metal.

The name "old style" is confusing, as it and "old face" have been used differently by different authors to refer to traditional printing types from around 1480-1750 (and relatively authentic copies of them) and the new "old style" face of Miller & Richard and its imitations, which appear rather different.Walter Tracy and others have used the term "modernised old style" to describe the Miller & Richard designs to reduce ambiguity. It is sometimes classified as a "transitional" serif typeface (in the vein of typefaces of the eighteenth century such as Baskerville) due to this.

The typeface Bookman Old Style is a descendent of a bolder version of the Old Style face, known in the nineteenth century as Old Style Antique.

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