Hoefler Text is an old-style

serif In typography, a serif () is a small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol within a particular font or family of fonts. A typeface or "font family" making use of serifs is called a serif typeface ...

font by

Jonathan Hoefler Jonathan Hoefler (; born August 22, 1970) is an American typeface designer. Hoefler founded the Hoefler Type Foundry in 1989, a type foundry in New York. Early life Jonathan Hoefler was born on August 22, 1970, in New York City to Doreen Ben ...

and released by Apple Computer Inc. (now

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...

) in 1991 to showcase advanced type technologies. Intended as a versatile font that is suitable for body text, it takes cues from a range of classic fonts, such as

Janson Janson is the name given to a set of old-style serif typefaces from the Dutch Baroque period, and modern revivals from the twentieth century. Janson is a crisp, relatively high-contrast serif design, most popular for body text. Janson is based o ...

and Garamond ( Jean Jannon's design). A version of Hoefler Text has been included with every version of the

classic Mac OS Mac OS (originally System Software; retronym: Classic Mac OS) is the series of operating systems developed for the Macintosh family of personal computers by Apple Computer from 1984 to 2001, starting with System 1 and ending with Mac OS 9. The ...

since

System 7.5 System 7, codenamed "Big Bang", and also known as Mac OS 7, is a graphical user interface-based operating system for Macintosh computers and is part of the classic Mac OS series of operating systems. It was introduced on May 13, 1991, by Apple Co ...

and in every version of

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

. Hoefler's company, Hoefler&Co., have continued development of the typeface, developing for sale a range of additional variants.Hoefler Text , Hoefler & Frere-Jones
Released free with every Mac during the growth of

desktop publishing Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online c ...

, at a time when producing printed documents was becoming dramatically easier, Hoefler Text raised awareness of type features previously the concern only of professional printers. ''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

'' magazine commented in 2014 that it "helped launch a thousand font obsessives." Hoefler Text was used in the

Wikipedia logo The logo of Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia, is an unfinished globe constructed from jigsaw pieces—some pieces are missing at the top—each inscribed with a glyph from a different writing system. As displayed on the web pages of the E ...

until the 2010 redesign, when it was replaced with

Linux Libertine Linux Libertine is a digital typeface created by the Libertine Open Fonts Project, which aims to create free and open alternatives to proprietary typefaces such as Times New Roman. It is developed with the free font editor FontForge and is licen ...

Features

Hoefler Text incorporates then-advanced features which have since become standard practice for font designers, such as automatic

ligature Ligature may refer to: * Ligature (medicine), a piece of suture used to shut off a blood vessel or other anatomical structure ** Ligature (orthodontic), used in dentistry * Ligature (music), an element of musical notation used especially in the me ...

insertion, real

small capitals In typography, small caps (short for "small capitals") are grapheme, characters typeset with glyphs that resemble letter case, uppercase letters (capitals) but reduced in height and weight close to the surrounding letter case, lowercase letters ...

, optional

old style figures Text figures (also known as non-lining, lowercase, old style, ranging, hanging, medieval, billing, or antique figures or numerals) are numerals designed with varying heights in a fashion that resembles a typical line of running text, hence the ...

and optional insertion of characters such as true superscript and subscript characters, the historical round and

long s The long s , also known as the medial s or initial s, is an archaism, archaic form of the lowercase letter . It replaced the single ''s'', or one or both of the letters ''s'' in a 'double ''s sequence (e.g., "ſinfulneſs" for "sinfulness" ...

, engraved capitals and swashes. Hoefler Text also has a matching ornament font containing

arabesque The arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils" or plain lines, often combined with other elements. Another definition is "Foli ...

motifs. It was, until

OpenType OpenType is a format for scalable computer fonts. It was built on its predecessor TrueType, retaining TrueType's basic structure and adding many intricate data structures for prescribing typographic behavior. OpenType is a registered trademark o ...

made alternate characters more common, one of only a few system fonts that contained old style, or ranging, figures, which are designed to harmonize with body text. Hoefler&Co. expanded Hoefler Text to include additional typographic features, and the current commercial release now includes three weights (an additional bold weight beside the regular and black included with Macs) and two sets of engraved capitals, as well as the more slender display variant Hoefler Titling. These are released in the

format, intended for cross-platform usage.

Gallery

Hoefler Text features.png, Hoefler Text features in the version bundled with Macs. The commercial release includes an additional bold weight (less bold than that shown) and a second, lighter design of engraved capitals. Rare and ancient ligatures in XeTeX.svg, Contextual and selectable ligatures in Hoefler Text, highlighted in red.

References

External links

*
Hoefler Text
in the Hoefler & Frere-Jones catalog
Hoefler Text features
in the Hoefler & Frere-Jones catalog
Hoefler Titling
in the Hoefler & Frere-Jones catalog {{OS X typefaces Old style serif typefaces Typefaces with text figures Hoefler & Frere-Jones typefaces Typefaces designed by Jonathan Hoefler Typefaces with optical sizes Typefaces and fonts introduced in 1991 Apple Inc. typefaces

Features

Gallery

See also

References

External links