Category | Serif |
---|---|
Designer(s) | Frederic Goudy |
Foundry | Lanston Monotype |
Date released | 1927 onwards |
Shown here | Linden Hill |
Deepdene is a serif typeface designed by Frederic Goudy from 1927–1933. [1] It belongs to the "old-style" of serif font design, with low contrast between strokes and an oblique axis. However, Deepdene has crisp serifs and a nearly upright italic, with much less of a slant than is normal for this style. [1]
Issued by the American branch of Lanston Monotype, Deepdene was popular on its release and often used for the body text of books. [2] [3] [4] Several digitisations have been created.
Deepdene is named after Goudy's home in Marlborough-on-Hudson. [3] [5] [6] This was itself named for the road on which he previously lived in Queens, New York. [7] [8]
Goudy described the design as loosely inspired by "a Dutch type which had just been introduced;" Goudy's friend Paul Bennett suggested in later life that this was Jan van Krimpen's Lutetia although Walter Tracy writes that the attribution cannot be certain. [9] He also later created a medium weight, bold and bold italic. [1]
Goudy's biographer D. J. R. Bruckner praised the design as "the type that brings together the most characteristics of Goudy types the best". [3]
Goudy later created a blackletter design, Deepdene Open Text and the derived Deepdene Text, which was intended to complement it for purposes such as initial capitals. [a] The designs are not related otherwise. [1]
The family in metal type included:
Deepdene has been digitised and released by several organisations and software companies. P22's digitisation under their LTC imprint perhaps uniquely includes the swash capitals and small caps in italics. [10] The open-source "League of Movable Type" project has released an open-source digitisation, "Linden Hill", by Barry Schwartz, in regular and italic with swashes but without bold weights. [11]