“For some time, I had wanted to create a distressed design, like a font that may have been used hundreds of years ago,” says Eric de Berranger about his typeface Oldbook. He is quick to add, “I also wanted it to be more readable than other, similar typestyles.”
While ITC Oldbook clearly captures the imperfect feel of aged printing, it also meets de Barranger’s goal of being exceptionally readable in text sizes. For this he credits the fact that he began with well-drawn characters, which he carefully modeled into distressed forms. “The process was more difficult than I originally thought,” de Berranger explains. “The antique letters had to be tested and modified several times to work correctly.”
De Berranger’s efforts paid off. ITC Oldbook elegantly simulates old type and antique printing in both text and display sizes. Stroke weights are uneven and curves are irregular, but the design has remarkably even color when set in blocks of text copy. Add to this its inherent legibility and ITC Oldbook acquires a range that goes far beyond replication of things old; it’s suitable for any project that calls for warm and weathered typography.