Iowan Old Style

Iowan Old Style
Category	Serif
Classification	Old-style
Designer(s)	John Downer
Foundry	Bitstream

Iowan Old Style is a digital serif typeface designed by John Downer and released by Bitstream in 1991.^[1]

Iowan Old Style is inspired by serif typefaces from Renaissance Italy, now called the “old-style” or Venetian model of typeface design, with influence from Downer’s work as hand-painter of signs.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Compared to the historical models it is based on, Iowan has a higher x-height, meaning that the lower-case letters are taller and appear larger and wider, producing a design that is suitable for display and on-screen use.^[5] It is used as a default font on the Apple Books application and is included as a system font on iOS and macOS.^[6]^[7]

Design

Downer has described the design "more Venetian than Aldine" and influenced by lettering.^[4] It has diamond-dots (tittles) on the “i” and “j” similar to the Arts and Crafts-influenced Goudy Old Style.^[1]

Iowan began as a design for ITC, but after the company dropped plans to release it, the font was bought up by Matthew Carter of Bitstream, who digitized and released it.^[4] Bitstream later revisited the design, adding ornaments and titling capitals.^[1] The character set includes small capitals and ligatures, as well as Cyrillic characters. Stephen Coles, an expert on digital fonts, describes its design as “hardworking.”^[8]

Gallery

An extended setting of a text by Oscar Wilde in Iowan Old Style, showing justified text and leading between the lines.
Iowan Old Style’s x-height compared to other serif fonts: higher than Caslon and Bembo, used in fine book printing, but lower than Lucida Bright which is intended for maximum legibility.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Berry, John. "An American Typeface Comes of Age". dot creative. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
^ Butterick, Matthew. "Iowan Old Style". Typography for Lawyers. Archived from the original on January 16, 2015. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
^ Hoefler, Jonathan. "John Downer at The Propagandist". Hoefler & Frere-Jones. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c Johnston, Alastair. "Alastair Johnston interviews John Downer" (PDF). Alastair Johnston. Retrieved 21 February 2016.
^ "Iowan Old Style". Identifont. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
^ Coles, Stephen. "Apple iBooks 1.5". Fonts In Use. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
^ Berry, John. "Text on the pages of iBooks". Easily Amused. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
^ "Recommended book text fonts". Fontshop. Retrieved 21 January 2016.

External links

Commercial release (MyFonts)
Fonts in Use
Font designer John Downer - Klingspor Museum article on John Downer's work
John Downer Speedballs (Typographica)
Sostav (Russian) - page on Downer's lettering and influences
Type design in Iowa - Luc Devroye's page on Downer and other Iowa-based type designers

Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=Iowan_Old_Style
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[IOS_Berry-1] Berry, John. "An American Typeface Comes of Age". dot creative. Retrieved 2 August 2015.

[Butterick_IOS-2] Butterick, Matthew. "Iowan Old Style". Typography for Lawyers. Archived from the original on January 16, 2015. Retrieved 2 August 2015.

[John_Downer_at_The_Propagandist-3] Hoefler, Jonathan. "John Downer at The Propagandist". Hoefler & Frere-Jones. Retrieved 21 January 2016.

[Alastair_Johnston-4] Johnston, Alastair. "Alastair Johnston interviews John Downer" (PDF). Alastair Johnston. Retrieved 21 February 2016.

[Iowan_Old_Style_Identifont-5] "Iowan Old Style". Identifont. Retrieved 2 August 2015.

[Apple_iBooks_1.5-6] Coles, Stephen. "Apple iBooks 1.5". Fonts In Use. Retrieved 21 January 2016.

[Text_on_the_pages_of_iBooks-7] Berry, John. "Text on the pages of iBooks". Easily Amused. Retrieved 21 January 2016.

[Fontshop-8] "Recommended book text fonts". Fontshop. Retrieved 21 January 2016.

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