TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Mon Apr 15 05:40:27 EDT 2024

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ABOUT

Thomas White Smith

English typefounder, 1835-1907, who created Old Roman (incl. Italic) in 1895. This typeface was digitally recreated by Patrick Michael Murphy as Old Roman (2002, Mad Irishman Productions). Mac McGrew writes: Old Roman was designed about 1895 by T. W. Smith, manager of the foundry of H. W. Caslon&Company in England, where it was cast in small sizes, and copied by BB&S about 1903 with Caslon's permission. Sizes above 16-point were originated by BB&S. It is a modernized antique letter, with a little more weight than many romans, and became popular for advertising, especially for work that was to be reduced or reproduced photographically, before photolithography or etched letterpress plates had been developed to the point of sharp, accurate reproduction of typefaces. It has somewhat the feeling of Bookman, but serifs are unbracketed and longer with rounded ends, and some characters are less formal. This typeface was called Caslon Old Roman in some BB&S specimens, and copied by Monotype only under that name. Some versions were put on Linotype in 1913. A number of variations of this typeface were drawn by Sidney Gaunt for BB&S in 1907 to 1909, making a substantial and popular family, especially for display advertising. These variations include Old Roman Condensed, Bold, which is about the proportion of Condensed; Bold Condensed, which is much narrower and heavier; Black and Black Italic, which are about the proportion of the original typefaces; and a unique Semitone, which is the Bold with a series of diagonal white lines cut through all strokes without an outline, making a shaded effect. This Semitone is also unusual among shaded typefaces in that the number of white lines is the same for any given letter, regardless of size; thus the shading is coarse in large sizes and fine in small sizes.

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