Garamond, Claude (klōd gärämôNˈ) [key], 1480–1561, Parisian
designer and maker of printing types. According to tradition he
learned his art from Geofroy Tory. Types designed by Garamond
were used in the printeries of the Estienne family, Colines,
Plantin, and Bodoni, and types used by the Elzevir family were
based on his designs. His royal Greek type ( grecs du roi ),
designed for Francis I, imitated the Greek writing of a scholar
of his time (Angelos Vergetios). His roman and italic types,
however, were innovations in being designed as metal types, not
as imitations of handwriting. His roman letter forms won general
acceptance in France and elsewhere and were a chief influence in
establishing the roman letter as standard, in place of the
gothic or black letter. Some modern type designs given his name
are not closely related to his, but are based on types that were
mistakenly attributed to him. The Columbia Electronic
Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University
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