Sabon

In 1967, a man named Jan Tschichold designed the typeface Sabon. This typeface was born out of the German printers' desire to have a unified font for their print publications. Today, Sabon is known as “the book font” and is used to set the body copy of many publications. It is also sometimes used in other items such as logos and street signs. Through several evaluations such as glyph comparisons, skeletal deconstructions, and ligature constructions, it is possible to discover the many distinguishing features of the individual letterforms that make up the typeface Sabon.

Technology was changing rapidly in the mid-20th century, and there were continual changes to printing during this time. A group of German printers had the desire to create a new typeface that could be used in any of the printing techniques that were growing in availability. These included manual and mechanical typesetting, as well as phototypesetting. The printers were very particular about the sort of typeface that would meet these requirements, and they rejected the more modern styles in favor of a 16th century style design; they wanted the typeface to be modeled after the typefaces Garamond and Granjon. In addition to these requirements, they also wanted the new typeface to be five percent narrower than their Monotype Garamond that was being used at the time, with the goal of saving space and money.

Jan Tschichold devised a “universal alphabet” for German that not only improved it's non-phonetic spelling, but promoted the replacement of the multiple fonts that were being used with a much simpler sans serif type. He also played a very significant role in British book design after the war. When commissioned by the German printers to create a universal typeface ...

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...mble other letterforms, which makes it difficult to read the words that they are included in.

Tchischold's Sabon began as a typeface designed to unify the German printers' techniques. It was a response to the growing technology within the printing world, and created a new style and ease for printers. It is still seen primarily in the publication world, but has developed a wider range of uses such as logos, magazine and book titles, and signage. Sabon has many subtle qualities that can be seen through glyph comparisons and skeletal deconstruction that come together to create a unique set of letterforms. It also has a few obvious distinguishing characters such as the double-story “a” and the tail on the uppercase “Q”. Sabon continues to grow in popularity among the design world, and will continue to hold it's nickname “the book font” within the publication industry.