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The specimen that taught the world to read contrast as money

Lesson 5 of 34 in Typography.

Bodoni, Manual of Typography - Manuale tipografico (1818) · bibliophilebooks

Lesson

Bodoni's hairlines only worked because the paper got better. Brands have been copying the hairlines without the paper ever since.

A two-page spread from Bodoni's specimen book. The left page is the title page, MANUALE TIPOGRAFICO set in widely spaced capitals inside a double rule. The right page, numbered 244, shows the capitals A to L at enormous size in a serif with hairline-thin horizontals and heavy vertical stems. — A spread from Bodoni's 1818 type specimen book, with giant capitals whose thin strokes are almost hairlines. That extreme thick and thin became a style of its own.Manuale Tipografico, specimen page. Giambattista Bodoni, published posthumously by Margherita Dall'Aglio, Parma, 1818.Wikimedia Commons/Public domain

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Question 1, locked
What made it possible for Bodoni to cut such extreme hairlines?
- The Duke of Parma paid for thinner metal punches
- He drew his letters with a much finer pen nib
- Smoother paper and better presses had caught up
- His widow redrew the letters after his death
Question 2, locked
A luxury brand sets its website text in a Didone at fourteen point. What does the lesson say happens on most screens?
- The hairlines vanish and it turns to grey mush
- The contrast looks sharper than it does in print
- The text reads well as long as the leading is tight
- It looks expensive, which is what the brand wants
Question 3, locked
A designer wants to borrow one thing from the Manuale Tipografico for their own layouts. What does the lesson say is worth copying?
- The extreme contrast of the letterforms
- The flat, unbracketed serifs
- The double rule around the title
- The air, the generous empty space

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