JOHN BASKERVILLE

John Baskerville was an English businessman, best known for being a master type designer and printer. He was born in the village of Wolverley, near Kidderminster in Worcestershire, and he was baptized on January 28, 1706. He began his career with teaching handwriting and cutting gravestones before he began to make a fortune with the manufacturing on lacquerwork items, known as japanning.

Beginning his printer career, he started practicing in Birmingham, England. He was a member of the Royal Society of Arts, and also was an associate of some of the members of the Lunar Society. His typefaces were greatly favored by Benjamin Franklin, but were heavily criticized by competitions and readers. In his style of typography, he always included wide margins and leading between each line.

Baskerville became an innovator in printing, paper, and ink production. He redesigned the current printing press at the time, replacing the wooden blocks with thinner, brass plates that allowed for a more even placement. He worked with the paper maker James Whatman, and they produced “wove paper”, which was a smooth paper that allowed for Baskerville’s black type to be brilliantly showcased when printed.

When designing the font Baskerville, he was heavily influenced by the fact that he did not like the font that many were using at the time, Caslon. Since he taught calligraphy in his earlier years, Baskerville relied on the strokes of handwriting to guide the creation of his font. His letterwork had a more complex and humanistic feel instead of feeling more like a machine-made text.