Morison described the companion italic as also being influenced by the typefaces created by the Didot family in the late 18th and early 19th centuries: a 'rationalistic italic that owed nothing to the tradition of the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries. The italic was made simpler than Plantin's, losing flourishes on the 'w' and 'v', but less radically than that of Perpetua. Italic and bold Times compared with its influences in italic. Historian and sometime Monotype executive Allan Haley commented that compared to Plantin 'serifs had been ntrast was increased and character curves were refined,' while Lawson described Times's higher-contrast crispness as having 'a sparkle never achieved'. However, Times New Roman modifies the Granjon influence further than Plantin due to features such as its 'a' and 'e', with very large counters and apertures, its ball terminal detailing, a straight-sided 'M' and an increased level of contrast between thick and thin strokes, so it has often been compared to fonts from the late eighteenth century, the so-called ' transitional' genre, in particular the Baskerville typeface of the 1750s. ) Indeed, the working title of Times New Roman was 'Times Old Style'. (The 'a' of Plantin was not based on Granjon's work: the Plantin-Moretus Museum's type had a substitute 'a' cut later. This style is sometimes categorised as part of the ' old-style' of serif fonts (from before the eighteenth century). The roman style of Plantin was loosely based on a metal type created in the late sixteenth century by the French artisan Robert Granjon and preserved in the collection of the Plantin-Moretus Museum of Antwerp. Compared to Baskerville and Perpetua, the x-height is a larger proportion of the type height. Times is most based on Plantin, but with the letters made taller and its appearance 'modernised' by adding eighteenth- and nineteenth-century influences, in particular enhancing the stroke contrast. )Ī digitisation of Times New Roman below the three typefaces originally considered as a basis for the Times project: Perpetua, Baskerville and Plantin. (Although Hutt, and most other authors, describe Times New Roman as having a higher x-height than Plantin, Tracy reports based on published Monotype dimensions that in the original small metal-type sizes the difference was not great. As a typeface designed for newspaper printing, Times New Roman has a high x-height, short descenders to allow tight linespacing and a relatively condensed appearance. Times New Roman has a robust colour on the page and influences of European early modern and Baroque printing. Times appears larger on the page, with tighter linespacing and more solid in appearance. The paper subsequently has switched typefaces five times between 19 to different variants of the original due to new production techniques and a format change from broadsheet to tabloid in 2004.ĭesign Twenty-two lines in Times New Roman compared to its predecessor 'modern' serif font. The Times stayed with the original Times New Roman for 40 years. Roman type has roots in Italian printing of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, but Times New Roman's design has no connection to Rome or to the Romans. In Times New Roman's name, Roman is a reference to the regular or roman style (sometimes also called Antiqua), the first part of the Times New Roman family to be designed. After one year, the design was released for commercial sale.

The new design made its debut in The Times on 3 October 1932. The main change was that the contrast between strokes was enhanced to give a crisper image. Morison proposed an older Monotype typeface named Plantin as a basis for the design, and Times New Roman mostly matches Plantin's dimensions. This matched a common trend in printing tastes of the period.

It has become one of the most popular typefaces of all time and is installed on most personal computers.Īsked to advise on a redesign, Morison recommended that The Times change their text typeface from a spindly nineteenth-century face to a more robust, solid design, returning to traditions of printing from the eighteenth century and before. It was commissioned by the British newspaper The Times in 1931 and conceived by Stanley Morison, the artistic adviser to the British branch of the printing equipment company Monotype, in collaboration with Victor Lardent, a lettering artist in The Times's advertising department.

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