Claude Garamond (ca. 1480-1561) cut types for the Parisian scholar-printer Robert Estienne in the first part of the sixteenth century, basing his romans on the types cut by Francesco Griffo for Venetian printer Aldus Manutius in 1495. Garamond refined his romans in later versions, adding his own concepts as he developed his skills as a punchcutter. After his death in 1561, the Garamond punches made their way to the printing office of Christoph Plantin in Antwerp, where they were used by Plantin for many decades, and still exist in the Plantin-Moretus museum. Other Garamond punches went to the Frankfurt foundry of Egenolff-Berner, who issued a specimen in 1592 that became an important source of information about the Garamond types for later scholars and designers. In 1621, sixty years after Garamond's death, the French printer Jean Jannon (1580-1635) issued a specimen of typefaces that had some characteristics similar to the Garamond designs, though his letters were more asymmetrical and irregular in slope and axis. Jannon's types disappeared from use for about two hundred years, but were re-discovered in the French national printing office in 1825, when they were wrongly attributed to Claude Garamond. Their true origin was not to be revealed until the 1927 research of Beatrice Warde. In the early 1900s, Jannon's types were used to print a history of printing in France, which brought new attention to French typography and the Garamond" types. This sparked the beginning of modern revivals; some based on the mistaken model from Jannon's types, and others on the original Garamond types. Italics for Garamond fonts have sometimes been based on those cut by Robert Granjon (1513-1589), who worked for Plantin and whose types are also on the Egenolff-Berner specimen. Linotype has several versions of the Garamond typefaces. Though they vary in design and model of origin, they are all considered to be distinctive representations of French Renaissance style; easily recognizable by their elegance and readability. ITC Garamond? was designed in 1977 by Tony Stan. Loosely based on the forms of the original sixteenth-century Garamond, this version has a taller x-height and tighter letterspacing. These modern characteristics make it very suitable for advertising or packaging, and it also works well for manuals and handbooks. Legible and versatile, ITC Garamond? has eight regular weights from light to ultra, plus eight condensed weights. Ed Benguiat designed the four stylish handtooled weights in 1992." In 1993 Ed Benguiat has designed Handtooled versions.

A font classic as a RMU redesign - a small yet mighty family with a West and Central European character set plus Cyrillic. All three styles include small caps and oldstyle figures.

Since the release of these fonts most typefaces in the Scangraphic Type Collection appear in two versions. One is designed specifically for headline typesetting (SH: Scangraphic Headline Types) and one specifically for text typesetting (SB Scangraphic Bodytypes). The most obvious differentiation can be found in the spacing. That of the Bodytypes is adjusted for readability. That of the Headline Types is decidedly more narrow in order to do justice to the requirements of headline typesetting. The kerning tables, as well, have been individualized for each of these type varieties. In addition to the adjustment of spacing, there are also adjustments in the design. For the Bodytypes, fine spaces were created which prevented the smear effect on acute angles in small typesizes. For a number of Bodytypes, hairlines and serifs were thickened or the whole typeface was adjusted to meet the optical requirements for setting type in small sizes. For the German lower-case diacritical marks, all Headline Types complements contain alternative integrated accents which allow the compact setting of lower-case headlines.

Since the release of these fonts most typefaces in the Scangraphic Type Collection appear in two versions. One is designed specifically for headline typesetting (SH: Scangraphic Headline Types) and one specifically for text typesetting (SB Scangraphic Bodytypes). The most obvious differentiation can be found in the spacing. That of the Bodytypes is adjusted for readability. That of the Headline Types is decidedly more narrow in order to do justice to the requirements of headline typesetting. The kerning tables, as well, have been individualized for each of these type varieties. In addition to the adjustment of spacing, there are also adjustments in the design. For the Bodytypes, fine spaces were created which prevented the smear effect on acute angles in small typesizes. For a number of Bodytypes, hairlines and serifs were thickened or the whole typeface was adjusted to meet the optical requirements for setting type in small sizes. For the German lower-case diacritical marks, all Headline Types complements contain alternative integrated accents which allow the compact setting of lower-case headlines.

Amsterdamer Garamont Pro is one of the fonts of the SoftMaker font library.