Generally speaking, Oldstyle type isn’t something we see super often these days, despite the fact that it used to be rather commonplace.
It’s a term you may very well have seen in your OpenType drop-down, or in the nitty-gritty information of a typeface design. You’ll also see it maybe without realising. After all, Minion Pro, inDesign’s default font, is an Oldstyle typeface. It’s a bit of a shame, we’d argue, that Oldstyle has been so shoved to the side, considering that its history starts at, well, the beginning of typographic history (as we recognise type today). Oldstyle, which unsurprisingly wasn’t referred to as such at the time, emerged in the late 15th and 16th centuries as the first successful attempts to translate handwritten forms into easily reproducible printed type. Humanist handwriting style, which is your classic structured but flowing calligraphic form of lettering, was favoured by the early printers of Italy – and the punchcutters in France – who wanted to take those organic, familiar forms and embed them into metal. These humanist shapes, combined with Roman capital letters and the newly standardised lowercase (we hope you remember our other newsletter looking into that!), created an entirely new style, which would shape how we read for a long, long time.
It is this basis in humanist script that sets Oldstyle apart, built on a foundation that has a distinctly human quality, making it familiar to us (and those at the time of its design). The traces of handwritten forms are still seen, such as the swell and gentle taper of strokes and the overall relative modesty of the contrast between thick and thin lines. The more rounded Oldstyle characters also hint at the angles of a broad-nib pen with their diagonal emphasis. What these features reveal, especially in retrospect, is how exciting a solution Oldstyle was when it was created, having solved a long-standing issue that earlier scripts and blackletter styles had struggled with… sustaining comfortable reading over long passages of text.
Oldstyle establishes clear word shapes through ascenders and descenders, and – by maintaining a consistent rhythm across lines – makes for more intuitive continuous reading. Previously, Blackletter and calligraphic text were far denser and more intimidating. Oldstyle entered as a far more accessible alternative and, as typography continued to develop over the centuries that followed, it became the starting point for entirely new styles.
Transitional typefaces, also known as Realist typefaces, materialised in the mid-18th Century as a bridge between Oldstyle and Modern typefaces. Baskerville is a classic example. They pushed typographic contrast further and straightened the underlying tension of forms, while later Didone type (another genre of serif) exaggerated these qualities into something more dramatic, yet equally refined. Didone quickly became a standard of printing in the mid-18th Century onwards, yet even as these newer forms came to be, Oldstyle never disappeared. Instead, it stood as a perpetual reference point against which other styles were measured.
For type designers today, Oldstyle continues to play a central role in design, particularly wherever readability and tone are central to its design. In certain areas, like your average novel, it is still a go-to, where long-form reading demands a typeface that’s accessible, familiar and doesn’t draw undue attention to itself. You can still see it in branding and cultural projects too, where its history lends a sense of credibility and warmth, but it’s perhaps not as common in more mainstream industries. Its style seems to have found a space where it is expected – museums, books, galleries, etc. – instead of being the basis for typographic execution. Maybe that’s for the best? Unlike more austere or highly stylised typefaces, Oldstyle communicates more of an authoritative tone, something that’s especially useful for institutions that want to feel established but approachable.
It’s equally appealing to those sorts of spaces due to its adaptability. In print, Oldstyle is reliable across a range of sizes and formats, maintaining clarity without sacrificing character. On screen, many contemporary serif designs borrow their proportions and principles, translating their legibility into digital environments. It’s fair to say that what keeps Oldstyle relevant is not just its history, but the logic behind its design. It can’t help but feel human, even through its retrograde features, and that will never not be appealing. Everything is tech, and AI, and digital, and fast. Maybe something that returns to our intrinsic warmth as squishy, imperfect people could be a welcome return?
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