Rudolf Ruzicka

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Rudolf Ruzicka Rudolf (Rudolph) Ruzicka was a Czech type designer (1883-1978), wood engraver and designer, who worked for 50 years as a consultant for the Mergenthaler Linotype Company. He had a farm in Vermont. Designer of these typefaces: Fairfield (1940-1947). Fairfield was revived as Transitional 551 at Bitstream (Alex Kaczun, 1991) and by Linotype as Fairfield LT Std. A free version was done by Barry Schwartz, and is called Fanwood Text (2011, roman and italic). Mac McGrew: Fairfield is a contemporary, modernized style of type which retains oldstyle characteristics, moderately compact, with long ascenders. It was designed for Linotype by Rudolph Ruzicka and released in 1940, with Fairfield Medium following in 1949. Italics are especially well designed to conform to the slug machine's mechanical limitations. Compare Electra. The Fairfield Medium swash characters, shown here in 12-point, have not been found in any Mergenthaler literature, but the mats are marked like the rest of the font. Lake Informal. Primer (1949, for Mergentaler Linotype). In 1984, Mergenthaler launched Primer54. Primer was copied/emulated by Bitstream as Century 751 in the early eighties. Mac McGrew: Primer was designed by Rudolph Ruzicka for Linotype and introduced in 1953. A half-dozen years earlier Linotype had commissioned this noted artist and engraver to design a typeface to replace Century Schoolbook. Legibility was the primary consideration, along with more contemporary styling. It is designed for a crisper feeling, and offers a choice of either long or short descenders, as well as lining or oldstyle figures. The italic is specifically drawn within the mechanical restrictions of slug-machine matrices. Although a great many typefaces increase their proportionate width in small sizes, Primer carries this reproportioning a little further than most, resulting in an unusually legible and stylish face, even in 6-point. It is popular for advertising and general book work as well as for educational materials. In the specimen shown here, the characters shown immediately above the small caps are those normally combined with these letters. These figures and other characters are also made in combination with their italic counterparts for insertion of matrices by hand, or can be cut to replace small caps on the keyboard. Ruzicka Freehand (1939; FontShop states 1936 though). The Linotype version is by Alex Kaczun. The Adobe version in 1991 (Linotype states 1993) is by Mark Altman and Ann Chaisson. Ruzicka showed several alphabets in Studies in Type Design (1968). In 2018, Jesse Ragan digitized a few of these and expanded them into a sturdy 12-style typeface family, Study (XYX Type). License Study from Type Network. Ruzicka was also known for his engravings: see this wood engraving example. Bio. FontShop link. An alphabet drawn in 1950 on his farm in Vermont (taken from PAGA, vol. 1, no. 1, page 12, 1953). Klingspor PDF. FontShop link. Klingspor link. View digital versions of Rudolf Ruzicka's typefaces. View Rudolph Ruzicka's typefaces.	EXTERNAL LINKS Rudolf Ruzicka [Designer info] Monotype link Klingspor Museum page MyFonts search Monotype search Fontspring search Google search INTERNAL LINKS Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Type design in Czechia ⦿ Type scene in Vermont ⦿