The name Bodoni was given by Giambattista Bodoni (1740–1813), a designer who first introduce this typeface in 1787 due to the requirements of his father’s printing business. In the era of modern typeface, designers such as John Baskerville or Firmin Didot started to reconstruct the form of type, they manage to perceive types more rationally but expressively. This so-called Modern typefaces they made summoned readers to jump out of the reading process and concentrate on the form of typography itself. Bodoni, who was born and raised in this atmosphere, admired several modernist designer’s work including John Baskerville, Pierre Simon Fournier, and Firmin Didot. He found his own style in typeface through researching modernist pioneer’s works and gained a worldwide acceptance among the designers.

The structure of Bodoni is mostly classified as modern serif. Due to its highly expressive form, it is often connected to fashion industry in public and rendered as a symbol of high culture. The design of it lowed down the x-height and was heavily modulated to exaggerate the contrast not only between thick and thin but also between high and low. The axis of letters was applied vertically to express itself in a more symmetrical way, at the same time rationalize (delete the traces of human hand) the strokes and counter. Same thing happens to the serif of this typeface, which is presented in a sharp, hair-like style that reader’s eyes can hardly follow it when it is used in text.