Giambattista Bodoni (1740-1813) was called the King of Printers; he was a prolific type designer, a masterful engraver of punches and the most widely admired printer of his time. His books and typefaces were created during the 45 years he was the director of the fine press and publishing house of the Duke of Parma in Italy. He produced the best of what are known as modern" style types, basing them on the finest writing of his time. Modern types represented the ultimate typographic development of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. They have characteristics quite different from the types that preceded them; such as extreme vertical stress, fine hairlines contrasted by bold main strokes, and very subtle, almost non-existent bracketing of sharply defined hairline serifs. Bodoni saw this style as beautiful and harmonious-the natural result of writing done with a well-cut pen, and the look was fashionable and admired. Other punchcutters, such as the Didot family (1689-1853) in France, and J. E. Walbaum (1768-1839) in Germany made their own versions of the modern faces. Even though some nineteenth century critics turned up their noses and called such types shattering and chilly, today the Bodoni moderns are seen in much the same light as they were in his own time. When used with care, the Bodoni types are both romantic and elegant, with a presence that adds tasteful sparkle to headlines and advertising. This version of Bodoni was done by Morris Fuller Benton for American Typefounders between 1907 and 1911. Although some of the finer details of the original Bodoni types are missing, this family has the high contrast and vertical stress typical of modern types. It works well for headlines, logos, advertising, and text."

Giambattista Bodoni (1740-1813) was called the King of Printers; he was a prolific type designer, a masterful engraver of punches and the most widely admired printer of his time. His books and typefaces were created during the 45 years he was the director of the fine press and publishing house of the Duke of Parma in Italy. He produced the best of what are known as "modern" style types, basing them on the finest writing of his time. Modern types represented the ultimate typographic development of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. They have characteristics quite different from the types that preceded them; such as extreme vertical stress, fine hairlines contrasted by bold main strokes, and very subtle, almost non-existent bracketing of sharply defined hairline serifs. Bodoni saw this style as beautiful and harmonious-the natural result of writing done with a well-cut pen, and the look was fashionable and admired. Other punchcutters, such as the Didot family (1689-1853) in France, and J. E. Walbaum (1768-1839) in Germany made their own versions of the modern faces. Even though some nineteenth century critics turned up their noses and called such types shattering and chilly, today the Bodoni moderns are seen in much the same light as they were in his own time. When used with care, the Bodoni types are both romantic and elegant, with a presence that adds tasteful sparkle to headlines and advertising. The Bauer Bodoni was done by Heinrich Jost for Bauer Typefoundry in 1927. This version has finer details of the original Bodoni types. It works well for headlines, logos, advertising.

An elegant take on Bodoni, with its subtle flared serifs that give it a very beautiful distinguished look.

An ultra heavy redesigned Bodoni look, extremely powerful but yet very elegant.

Bodoni expresses the beginning of the Industrial Revolution; its serifs are flat, think and unbracketed, while the stress is always on the mathematically vertical strokes. Bodoni believed in plenty of white space and therefore descenders are long. The M is rather narrow; in the Q the tail at first descends vertically and the R has a curled tail. The italic, like most continental modern faces, has roman serifs. Monotype Bodoni provides a clear-cut effect due to its simplicity. It reproduces well, particularly in sizes over 12pt. This font is slightly darker than Bauer Bodoni. The contrast makes Monotype Bodoni appear more condensed.

A Bold new re cut of Bodoni, designed with a more contemporary look. Also has matching Italic.

DonnaBodoni was inspired by David Farey. He once wrote, somebody should honor the widow of Giambattista Bodoni the brave Signora Paola Margherita Dall 'Aglio for her effort to have the Manuale tipografico di Giambattista Bodoni published after his death. Since I have redesigned a good deal of Bodoni’s work and added some of my own, I thought it was my duty to do at least this for Bodoni’s unknown widow. Here is my 3-cut script in her honor. The design is remotely based on Bodoni’s English-Initials. Your honorable Gert Wiescher

Talking about the numerous types that today bear the name of Giambattista Bodoni are a kind of tribute as much to his reputation as a printer as to his ability as designer and engraver. In fact, all of them tent to be more in the way or style of Bodoni than simply copy of his letterforms. Like many other type designers, we’ve been seduced also to develop our own point of view of his work, nowadays enriched by some features of OpenType format that allows a variety of combinations: standard ligatures, discretional ligatures, stylistic alternates and old styles figures. Whereas the Bodoni serif in the capitals was of the same weight as the thin stroke but joined with a very slight fillet (Bracket) and the lowercase serif were like his French rivals, the Didots, featured straight- edged serifs that were unbracketed. The ascenders and descenders of this new Bodoni are shorter, giving in this way, more space for enlarge x high. Specially designed for editorial design and advertising, can be used in magazines, annual reports and all kind of fine print materials or web pages. The beauty of his letterforms can enrich headlines; this font can also be used as body text for its good legibility and accurate kerning.

Bodoni Sans is a new classic built on the foundation of two centuries of history. Fresh and contemporary, while feeling familiar. Stylish and sophisticated, confident and elegant. Bodoni Sans is more than just chopping off the serifs. The classical proportions of the capitals and x-heights were maintained, but the letterforms were rebalanced for use without serifs. Contemporary modifications were made to some widths, as well as an all new Light weight was created. High contrast is the key feature of Bodoni Sans. To maintain this contrast over a wide range of sizes, three optical sizes were drawn: Standard, Display and Text. Contrast adjustments were made for each optical size for optimal performance. The Standard was designed for the mid range of 12 to 60pt, Display for 48pt and above, and Text for 6 to 12pt. Web/Digital use was also considered while developing Bodoni Sans. The fonts were tested as web formats, and examined on a variety of screens, to ensure seamless use in both print and digital applications.

Bodoni Comedia is for the funny, happy things in life. I really enjoyed doing this one. - your funny type designer Gert Wiescher

Giambattista Bodoni (1740–1813) was called the King of Printers and the Bodoni font owes its creation in 1767 to his masterful cutting techniques. Predecessors in a similar style were the typefaces of Pierre Simon Fournier (1712–1768) and the Didot family (1689–1836). The Bodoni font distinguishes itself through the strength of its characters and embodies the rational thinking of the Enlightenment. The new typefaces displaced the Old Face and Transitional styles and was the most popular typeface until the mid-19th century. Bodoni’s influence on typography was dominant until the end of the 19th century and even today inspires new creations. Working with this font requires care, as the strong emphasis of the vertical strokes and the marked contrast between the fine and thick lines lessens Bodoni’s legibility, and the font is therefore better in larger print with generous spacing. Chauncey H. Griffith’s Poster Bodoni displays characteristics of the advertisement fonts of the first half of the 20th century. The font was most often used for posters and signs, eventually including neon signs.

New for 2020 Bodoni Ornamental now has two italics to choose from, one basic italic and a second which is more of a true italic with a few uppercase letters that have been stylized. Only one italic can be style linked to the regular upright version so in the second italic we've added Avanti to the name which means forward in Italian. When purchasing the regular upright and Avanti italic together they will install as two separate families. Bodoni Ornamental is a revival of a very old typeface based on the Poster Bodoni letter shape. Giambattista Bodoni passed away in 1813, this decorative version was created in the 1820’s or 1830’s which was the time period when many of these ultra bold decorated type faces began to appear, the original artist is currently unknown. The original version of this ornate classic was only available as a set of uppercase letters, today over one hundred eighty years later this font is now complete with a new lowercase, numbers and accented characters for Eastern, Central and Western European countries. Due to the ornate detail in Bodoni Ornamental when printing itís recommended to use a laser printer 600dpi or greater, a 1200dpi printer will give you the best results rendering the most detail at the smallest possible point size for this font. Small home user Ink Jet printers are not recommended for Bodoni Ornamental unless you set the font to a very large point size. With Ink Jet printers much of the detail in the letters will bleed together as the ink hits the page, commercial Ink Jet printers such as GiclÈe printers may give good results. When using Bodoni Ornamental for digital images including web site graphics it may help to add a one pixel stroke fill around the letters setting color to white or grey, this may help the web site images display better on some computer's. You will need a photo editing application such as Adobe Photoshop to create your image adding the stroke fill and save as a jpg , png or gif file. I hope you enjoy this old font as much as I did making it. Note: When previewing the Bodoni Ornamental font in the Windows font preview you may notice some letters appearing lighter and some darker, this is a problem with the preview window and some ornate fonts, Bodoni Ornamental will print normal and not with mixed light and dark letters.

I became interested in designing Bodoni Classic because of a lazy graphic designer at Jacques Damase publishing house. He had to change a single letter on a bookcover about J. B. BODONI. The French call him Jean Baptiste instead of Giambattista! And that unknown graphic designer just took any old “J” from some newly cut Bodoni. All the new Bodoni cuts have square serifs, whereas the originals had rounded serifs and slightly concave feet. The single letter “J” with the squared off serif was for me like a road sign to start redesigning the entire Bodoni family. That’s exactly what I started in 1993 and a dozen years later I am finished. Okay, I am still adding new Bodoni Classics, but those are my personal additions. Recently I designed a family of seven »Bodonian Script« fonts, that can be mixed with most of my Bodonis. Yours very retro, Gert Wiescher

This Bodoni caps only font was an experiment from Dave Farey how tall such a Bodoni could be elongated in its design. It reminds to the look of a fence, but in large sizes it may fit on a narrow window.

Working at American Type Founders from a Bruce Foundry recutting, Morris Fuller Benton worked out the dramatics of the English Fat Face, and in 1928 produced Ultra Bodoni, a headline spectacular. Using Benton’s 1933 Ultra Bodoni Extra Condensed, Richard Lipton digitized Bodoni FB Bold Condensed, then took compression even further and designed Bodoni FB Bold Compressed, a real technical tour de force; FB 1992