Paradigm Bold

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What are, to all intents and purposes, the identical characters in the same typeface, will be quite robust when printed letterpress, yet disappointingly weak when set in high resolution and printed offset. Fine features that are incisive in letterpress become merely delicate when translated literally to the flat process. If Renaissance typeforms are to be adapted to new technology, a little tinkering won't do: serious redesign is called for.

With Paradigm, the design process by which the earliest Italian type designers translated words in one medium, handwriting, into another, metal typography, was investigated. The idea was to get that funky quality of Incunabula type onto today's high-resolution offset page. It's impossible to fake the sturdiness of letterpress by copying its image and reproducing that in high res - the result just looks rough and antiqued. The trick is to recreate the effect, not the artefacts; to work on the process, not the product.

This is the process: During letterpress printing, features at the perimeter of characters increase in area. There is greater pressure there, as the type bites into the paper and stretches it, and the ink spreads over the bevelled edge (the beard or neck) of the type, recording its impression. At the same time, irregularities occur everywhere, as a result of idiosyncrasies in individual pieces of type or their position (most significantly a kind of subtle wobbling) or unevenness in inking or printing pressure. There's a paradox here. The spreading of ink at perimeter areas, and the eyes' three-dimensional perception of the edge of the type impression, exaggerate the detailing present in the metal type, yet the idiosyncrasies overlay this definition with a fresh, seemingly random, level of visible detail. This simultaneous enhancement and degradation is the paradox that gives letterpress typography its unique quality.

Paradigm's discreet serifs are in keeping with the first humanist type, invented by Konrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz. Jenson has been done to death: Paradigm's benchmark is the Sweynheym and Pannartz Rome type of 1467, classified (Bringhurst) as a Montane Roman.

The letterforms of Paradigm were designed, drawn and "Fontographed" as an original full-family character set.

While Paradigm may be classified as a flare-serif type, the function of its serifs is contrary to that found in conventional flare-serif types such as Albertus or Optima. In these faces, the sharp corners produce a crisp effect in letterpress by minimizing the area of high-pressure points, and hence reducing the opportunity for ink spread at these points. In photoset-offset reproduction however, the sharpness compensated for the rounding-off that occurred during the six generations of photographic copying between font artwork and printed type. In Paradigm, designed for today's high-fi technology, that sharpness is redundant; rather, the serifs are designed as soft "hot-spots", to suggest the spread of ink in letterpress. In the capitals, the flaring is treated mostly as an even application of style, but in the lower case there is a variety of serif size and function. Here, they are part of the structure of the characters.

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