The Type Spec Book project was to create a book all about a particular font of our choice. I selected Palatino, an old-style serif typeface designed by Hermann Zapf. Named after the 16th-century Italian master of calligraphy Giambattista Palatino, Palatino is based on the humanist types of the Italian Renaissance, which mirror the letters formed by a broad nib pen reflecting Zapf’s expertise as a calligrapher.

Although it’s based on the humanistic serif designs of the Renaissance, the Palatino design is much easier to read because its strokes are lighter and proportions are relatively larger than the smaller Renaissance letters. This enhanced readability made it an ideal choice for the substandard paper used by newspapers and magazines at the time of its release.

Palatino itself has a solid structure, intended to read clearly on poor-quality paper and printing; Zapf’s friend Alexander Lawson wrote that “the open counters that make Palatino such a legible letter were provided to overcome a then current printing problem in Germany, poor-quality paper. The weight of the type was also thickened beyond that of a normal roman in order to adapt to the lithographic printing processes of that period. Zapf has steadily maintained that he did not create Palatino as a book type but rather as a commercial face.”