TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Mon Apr 15 05:27:54 EDT 2024

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ABOUT

Justus Erich Walbaum

Born in 1768 in Steinlah (Braunschweig), Walbaum died in Weimar in 1839 [Jay Rutherford puts his death in 1838]. This German punchcutter and typefounder introduced the modern (i.e., didone) lettershapes. In 1796, he acquires printer Ernst Wilhem Kircher's type foundry in Goslar, and moves it to Weimar in 1803. He runs the foundry until 1836, at which point he sold it to F. A. Brockhaus in Leipzig. In 1918, H. Berthold AG in Berlin gains possession of art of the Walbaum foundry and some of its matrices. Walbaum produced Walbaum Fraktur (1800) but is best known for his didone masterpiece, the Walbaum (1804), aka Walbaum Antiqua and kursiv. Klingspor pins the date at 1800. The early modern metal versions include Walbaum 374 (1933 and 1934, Monotype), and the later ones Walbaum 674 (1957, Monotype) and the Typoart version. Versions and revivlas from the digital age:

• Walbaum LT (Linotype). This family has 34 weights.
• Walbaum SB and Walbaum SH (Scangraphic).
• G.G. Lange's Berthold Walbaum Book is based on the 16 point size of Walbaum's 1804 typeface and has great contrast in stroke weight [see Walbaum Display on the SoftMaker MegaFont XXL CD, 2002]. Berthold released Berthold Walbaum Book in 1975. It is well-suited for body copy, particularly for formal documents that need a contemporary flair, as well as for headlines.
• Khunrath's revival called Justus (2008, Open Font Library) has six styles and is free.
• Walbaum Text (2002) by Frantisek Storm. Storm also released Walbaum 10 Pro (2010) and Walbaum 2010 Pro (2010), which are extensive (and gorgeous!) didone families, the latter obtained from the former by optical thinning. Storm quips: I only hope that mister Justus Erich won't pull me by the ear when we'll meet on the other side. Advertised as a poster sans family, he also offers Walbaum Grotesk Pro (2011).
• Walbaum Antiqua Pro (2013, Ralph M. Unger).
• In 2018, Monotype's Carl Crossgrove, Charles Nix, Juan Villanueva and Lynne Yun co-designed Walbaum, a reimagined superfamily with 69 total fonts, in five optical sizes. Monotype writes: Walbaum was meticulously crafted by Monotype's Carl Crossgrove, Charles Nix, and Juan Villanueva to bring Justus Erich Walbaum's high contrast didone style masterpiece to the 21st century. Walbaum has over 600 glyphs with OpenType typographic features like small capitals, old style and lining figures, proportional and tabular figures, fractions and ligatures. Also included in the family are three decorative and ornament fonts.

Walbaum Fraktur (ca. 1800, Berthold) is called W650 Blackletter and Walbaum Fraktur on the SoftMaker MegaFont XXL CD (2002) and DS-Walbaum Fraktur by Delbanco. Softmaker later realeased Walbaum Fraktur No. 2 Pro and Walbaum Zierfraktur Pro. URW also has a version, Walbaum Fraktur, and Linotype's is also called Walbaum Fraktur. See also Scangraphic's Walbaum Fraktur SH and Walbaum Fraktur SB, Dieter Steffmann's Walbaum Fraktur (2002), and Elsner and Flake's EF Walbaum Fraktur.

In 2010, Mallory Wiegers published a couple of insightful posters on Walbaum's modern typefaces.

Linotype link.

MyFonts listing of digitizations of his work. Kernest link.

EXTERNAL LINKS
Justus Erich Walbaum
 [Designer info]
Monotype link
Dafont page
Klingspor Museum page
MyFonts search
Monotype search
Fontspring search
Google search

INTERNAL LINKS
Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Blackletter fonts ⦿ German type scene ⦿ Modern style [Bodoni, Didot, Walbaum, Thorowgood, Computer Modern, etc.] ⦿ Dieter Steffmann ⦿