15 May 2004

Type and Empire, 2

All the News that's Fit to PrintI don’t ascribe much significance to the names of typefaces. The style names are not what determine the meanings of letterforms.

But this was just so rich. From The New York Times’ note on last fall’s typographic overhaul:

“The [New York] Times’s text typeface, for news and editorials, remains Imperial, designed in the 1950’s by Edwin W. Shaar and adopted by the newspaper in 1967.”

The shape of the News, the shapes of Truth are inscribed in Empire.