Pierre-Simon Fournier

Pierre-Simon Fournier (15 September 1712 – 8 October 1768) was a French mid-18th century punch-cutter, typefounder and typographic theoretician. He was both a collector and originator of types. Fournier's contributions to printing were his creation of initials and ornaments, his design of letters, and his standardization of type sizes. He worked in the rococo form, and designed typefaces including Fournier and Narcissus. He was known for incorporating ‘decorative typographic ornaments’ into his typefaces. Fournier's main accomplishment is that he ‘created a standardized measuring system that would revolutionize the typography industry forever’.

He was also known as Fournier le Jeune ("the younger") to distinguish him from his father Jean Claude, who was also in the typesetting industry. In his early life, Fournier studied watercolour with J. B. G. Colson, and later wood engraving. In 1737, Fournier published his first theoretical work, on the minimum spacing between letters while still retaining readability.

In 1723, the French government agreed that types should be subject to standards. By 1737, the younger Fournier decided to begin creating his punches to a scale of 6 ciceros or 72 points to the Paris inch, instead of the then-standard height-to-paper method. This point is smaller than the subsequent Didot point established by François-Ambroise Didot 38 years later, as Fournier used the Paris foot (0.298 m) and Didot used the royal foot (pied du roi, 0.325 m). The Fournier cicero (12 points) is approximately 11 Didot points.

Two years after developing the point system, Fournier decided to create his own type foundry.

When the Netherlands was seized by France, Louis XIV commissioned new types for use during his reign. The King kept the font as a monopoly to himself, with penalties against unauthorized reproduction. In the following century, Fournier's Modèles des Caractères (1742) continued the Romain du Roi style, but adapted it for his own new age. The typefaces that Fournier and successors created had such extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes, that there was a constant risk of the letters shattering.

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