Cartier Book™ font family


Designed by  Rod McDonald in 1997
Carl Dair in 1967
The beginning of Canada's centenary year, January 1, 1967, is generally given as the date for the introduction of that country's first important typeface. This isn't close to the correct date.While CG Cartier, drawn by the Canadian designer Carl Dair, was first shown to the public in January of 1967, this was more an idea for a typeface than a typeface itself. Even when a font was eventually produced in the fall of the same year, it was still not a finished design.

The downfall of CG Cartier is that it is lettering and not a typeface. Lettering and calligraphy allow for individuality in character shapes. In a text typeface, however, each letter must carry the information necessary to easily identify it as belonging to that font. The most difficult task in typeface design is producing an anonymous letter that still possesses verve. The individuality Dair gave CG Cartier precludes it from being a successful text typeface.

The story of how Carl Dair's design idea became a typeface design begins when another Canadian lettering artist and type designer, Rod McDonald, moved to Toronto. I went to work for Mono Lino, the company who had exclusive Canadian rights to CG Cartier. I was, of course, seduced by the design and tried to use it often - but just couldn't make it work as a proper text face."

From time to time, McDonald would experiment with CG Cartier, trying to transform it from lettering to a typeface, never reaching a successful conclusion. Then in the early 1990s something happened. "I felt that my career had plateaued. I was doing a lot of word-marks, but yearned to do more. I looked at CG Cartier again. In 1997, at the ATypI Congress in Reading, England, I approached Allan Haley with the idea of making a digital typeface family based on Dair's work. His encouragement sealed the deal."

The project soon became McDonald's passion. "I was intimately familiar with the design, and, thanks to Massey College of the University of Toronto, was able to spend lots of time with Dair's original sketches and more finished renderings. I began to understand what Dair was trying to accomplish. My goal was to become the drawing office the CG Cartier never had. I wanted to complete Dair's work and distill his idea into a typeface design."

When asked, what is the most significant difference between his design and the original CG Cartier, McDonald's answer was simple, direct and telling of what it takes to make a successful text typeface family. "Dair's accomplishment was the design. I tried to make it a working typeface. I spent the first year doing that: cleaning up the inconsistencies, removing the quirks; basically regularizing the design. The next year was spent putting energy back into the typeface; giving it back the life Dair gave it. The second year was the hardest."

McDonald's completed work, Cartier Book, is a typeface family of four roman weights, an italic complement to the Regular weight, small caps -- and a feat of remarkable design. It successfully melds qualities that make a typeface distinctive with those that insure lasting value. Few designs are as elegantly functional and stunningly attractive."

Cartier Book Italic

Desktop fonts are designed to be installed on a computer for use with applications. Licensed per user.
Annual web fonts are licensed for a set number of page views.
Annual web fonts are licensed for a set number of page views.
Application licensing allows fonts to be embedded in your software applications. The license may be based on the number of titles or the number of installations.
Electronic Document Fonts can be embedded in an eBook, eMagazine or eNewspaper. Fonts are licensed annually per issue.
Server fonts can be installed on a server and e.g. used by automated processes to create items. A license is per server core CPU per year.
A Digital Ads license allows you to embed web fonts in digital ads, such as ads created in HTML5. These license is based on the number of ad impressions.
Cartier Book


Select technical format and
language support of the font.
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Std / OT CFF

supports at least

21 languages.















Technical details
Digital data from:
OpenType outline flavour:
CFF - PostScript-Outlines
Technical font names:
File name: CartierBookStd-Italic.otf
Windows menu name: Cartier Book Std
PostScript name: , CartierBookStd-Italic
PostScript full name: , CartierBookStd-Italic
Catalog number:
16780961
Characters:
267
US$ 29.99
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Features

Languages

Fractions

Tag: frac

Function: Replaces figures separated by a slash with 'common' (diagonal) fractions. The user enters 3/4 in a recipe and gets the threequarters fraction.

Standard Ligatures

Tag: liga

Function: Replaces a sequence of glyphs with a single glyph which is preferred for typographic purposes. This feature covers the ligatures which the designer/manufacturer judges should be used in normal conditions. The glyph for ffl replaces the sequence of glyphs f f l.

Ordinals

Tag: ordn

Function: Replaces default alphabetic glyphs with the corresponding ordinal forms for use after figures. One exception to the follows-a-figure rule is the numero character (U+2116), which is actually a ligature substitution, but is best accessed through this feature. The user applies this feature to turn 2.o into 2.o (abbreviation for secundo).

Superscript

Tag: sups

Function: Replaces lining or oldstyle figures with superior figures (primarily for footnote indication), and replaces lowercase letters with superior letters (primarily for abbreviated French titles). The application can use this feature to automatically access the superior figures (more legible than scaled figures) for footnotes, or the user can apply it to Mssr to get the classic form.

Historical Forms

Tag: hist

Function: Some letterforms were in common use in the past, but appear anachronistic today. The best-known example is the long form of s; others would include the old Fraktur k. Some fonts include the historical forms as alternates, so they can be used for a 'period' effect. This feature replaces the default (current) forms with the historical alternates. While some ligatures are also used for historical effect, this feature deals only with single characters. The user applies this feature in Adobe Jenson to get the archaic forms of M, Q and Z.

Ornaments

Tag: ornm

Function: This is a dual-function feature, which uses two input methods to give the user access to ornament glyphs (e.g. fleurons, dingbats and border elements) in the font. One method replaces the bullet character with a selection from the full set of available ornaments; the other replaces specific "lower ASCII" characters with ornaments assigned to them. The first approach supports the general or browsing user; the second supports the power user. The user inputs qwwwwwwwwwe to form the top of a flourished box in Adobe Caslon, or inputs the bullet character, then chooses the thistle dingbat.

These fonts support the Basic Latin character set. Each font is Unicode™ encoded, and available in d

Tag: Basic Latin

Function: These fonts support the Basic Latin character set. Each font is Unicode™ encoded, and available in different formats. Please review the product information for each font to ensure it will meet your requirements.