The Biography of Bodoni Giambattista

Bodoni was born in Saluzzo, Italy in february 16 in 1740. he was a Italian printer that designed a lot of typefaces that are still use in this century, one of his many typefaces have his name and is one of the most used typefaces in the modern era and that one is Bodoni. Bodoni at first started with old-style typefaces with a lot of decorative details on it. The typeface that continue to have the Bodoni name appeared in 1790. Of the books that he produced during that period, the most recognized one is Manuale Tipografico, a collection of 291. He Publish a second edition of his book on 1818.

By 1790 Bodoni had become famous in several countries around the world; lots of people, businessmans and books companies went to visit him and see his work and buy his book. The Duke of Parma gave him a press that was bigger and more modern than the press he used to make his books, with this new press the duke of parma wanted him to make better jobs; even though his books were known for the contrast of the type bodoni always used a beautiful typographic excellence on his books the people that bought the book they weren’t looking for textual accuracy they were looking for they beauty of the typeface, he printed a lot of important works, the most famous was The Writings of Horace and Virgil in 1791 and 1793 and Homer’s iliad in 1808.

In the last year of his life he brought Bodoni world fame. Bodoni was complimented by the pope of the vatican because of his work and Napoleon Bonaparte gave him a pension.The type of Giambattista Bodoni is no a exception. his fonts have been copied and interpreted many times because is font that is not easy to read because of the spacing in between letters, even though when people tried to copy they not always succeed. Bodoni fonts are some of the most difficult typefaces to imitate because of the spacing and the details. When a type designer try to create a new typefaces the first obstacle that it faces is select from which bodoni typeface will cut to use as an inspiration. Bodoni created over 140 roman fonts, a over 100 italic designs, more than 100 script fonts. the beauty of Bodoni’s printing is how he use his ability to use always just the right design for any given application. If he wanted something of just slightly abridged proportions, or a font just lighter than previous lines, he had those also.

Bodoni typefaces were meant to be seen and read. bodoni’s books, royal announcements and pamphlets were big, royal efforts meant to be appreciated as works of art, rather than just pieces of communication. The typography Bodoni produced still account as one of the most elegant and structured printing ever produced. Bodoni once talk to a friend that he overthink for more than six months and produced several trial proofs in the process of choosing the right type for the title page in one of his books. Bodoni’s lifestyle was accord with his aristocratic typefaces. The people has given him the title of “the king of typographers” After a relatively short learning, Bodoni immediately became the director of the royal press of the Duke of Parma. Bodoni work for the duke of parma but he keep on writing his own books and became more recognized in the world even napoleon Bonaparte helped him on his work.

When Bodoni was young, the art of the English printer and businessman John Baskerville was his influence; when Bodoni opened his first printing shop for the Duke of Parma, he used the type from Fournier, the French printer. Years later, the art of the typefaces of his Parisian competitor François Didot, influenced him dramatically. Bodoni was always, in some way, influenced by the work of other. Some people may think that Bodoni was influenced a lot by Didot. there are some similarities in between the two designers” art, and it is clear that Bodoni studied Didot’s designs carefully, a very inspection reveals that the weight in transitions of Bodoni typefaces are more gradual, and serifs still maintain a slight degree of bracketing. There is a little hint of old style characteristics in Bodoni’s fonts. Bodoni is a typeface that is more often use for art artist like to use it because it has a strong contrast and serifs.

Bodoni is also use by companies for their wordmarks, companies like Sony, Time Warner and some universities use bodoni for their logo. Some people say that bodoni is a copy of baskerville but they have a lot of differences bodoni serifs are less curved than baskerville, bodoni type have bigger stroke than baskerville, bodoni does not look like is a handwritten type, bodoni type is bigger than the baskerville Bodoni was the type that marked the end of calligraphy and lead into a new era of industrialized printing methods using modern fonts.Bodoni was widely used, it was the font that every italian writers would choose from for their books. Bodoni has been used for many types of material, ranging from 18th century Italian books to 1960s periodicals.

In the 21st century, the old bodoni versions still continue to be used in advertising. Bodoni typeface is not a good type for setting big paragraphs of text, as the verticality of the letter forms interferes with the text’s horizontal rhythm.The Bodoni romans type and italics have been largely copied and have become a crucial part of the 21st century typographic equipment, setting the stage in marking the end of calligraphy and the start of elegant typography, cultured and structured printing. Indeed, Giambattista Bodoni wanted for his typefaces to be seen as well as read. Now, however, with the technology available to us digitally in this age, Bodoni is not easy to use in e-books, e-readers, computers, smartphones, etc because of its large contrast in stroke weight and serifs.