Porson is an influential

typeface A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font. There are list of type ...

in the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

alphabet based on the handwriting of the English classicist

Richard Porson Richard Porson (25 December 1759 – 25 September 1808) was an English classical scholar. He was the discoverer of Porson's Law. The Greek typeface '' Porson'' was based on his handwriting. Early life Richard Porson was born at East Ruston, n ...

Creation

Porson was a classicist with very careful Greek handwriting. His biographer wrote that he "excelled ... in writing with neatness and beauty" and "wrote notes on the margins of books with such studied accuracy that they rivalled print".Watson, 361 The

punchcutter Punchcutting is a craft used in traditional typography to cut letter punches in steel as the first stage of making metal type. Steel punches in the shape of the letter would be used to stamp matrices into copper, which were locked into a mould sh ...

Richard Austin was commissioned by the

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

to cut a type based on his handwriting, probably from 1806 onwards. It was cast by the

Caslon foundry The Caslon type foundry was a type foundry in London which cast and sold metal type. It was founded by the punchcutter and typefounder William Caslon I, probably in 1720. For most of its history it was based at Chiswell Street, Islington, was t ...

, but it never appeared in their specimens, seemingly as the type was proprietary to Cambridge.Bowman, x It was completed and used only after Porson's death in 1808, seemingly first in 1809 and more in 1810.

Legacy

After its first appearance, it was soon copied by other founders. By the end of the 19th century, it has become the predominant Greek type used in Britain, with Victor Scholderer's New Hellenic typeface (favored by Cambridge University Press) the only notable exception. A version was released by

Monotype Monotyping is a type of printmaking made by drawing or painting on a smooth, non-absorbent surface. The surface, or matrix (printing), matrix, was historically a copper etching plate, but in contemporary work it can vary from zinc or glass to ac ...

for

hot metal typesetting In printing and typography, hot metal typesetting (also called mechanical typesetting, hot lead typesetting, hot metal, and hot type) is a technology for typesetting text in letterpress printing. This method injects molten type metal into a mol ...

with some changes in 1912.Bringhurst, 278 The standard model for Greek typefaces from the 1540s until the mid-eighteenth century was the

Grecs du roi ''Les grecs du roi'' (lit. "the king's greeks") are a celebrated and influential Greek typeface cut by the French punchcutter Claude Garamond between 1541 and 1550. Arthur Tilley calls the books printed from them "among the most finished specim ...

type cut by

Claude Garamond Claude Garamont (–1561), known commonly as Claude Garamond, was a French type designer, publisher and punch-cutter based in Paris. Garamond worked as an engraver of punches, the masters used to stamp matrices, the moulds used to cast metal ty ...

and its many imitations from other punchcutters, also known as "Old Style". However, by the mid-eighteenth century tastes in handwriting had changed. Comparing with Greek types used previous to it, Porson is characterized by its simplified forms and its abandonment of the many

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 ...

s and alternative forms historically popular when writing Greek. It has been described as "calm yet energetic", and was used by the

Oxford Classical Texts Oxford Classical Texts (OCT), or Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis, is a series of books published by Oxford University Press. It contains texts of ancient Greek and Latin literature, such as Homer's ''Odyssey'' and Virgil's ''Aeneid'', ...

for over a century. John Bowman describes it as "the single most important contribution to Greek type design in Britain" and two designs based on it by from the

Figgins foundry Figgins is a surname. Notable people and characters with the surname include: *Vincent Figgins (1766–1844), English typeface designer *James Figgins (1811–1884), his son, typefounder and member of Parliament * Jim Figgins (1893–1956), Scotti ...

as "the most beautiful Greek type ever". An open-source digitisation has been published by the

Greek Font Society The Greek Font Society ( el, Εταιρεία Ελληνικών Τυπογραφικών Στοιχείων) is a non-profit organization in Greece, founded in 1992, devoted to improving the standard of Greek digital typography. It has issued four ...

Notes

Cited literature

* * * * * * {{refend

References

*Bowman, J. H. (1992). ''Greek Printing Types in Britain in the Nineteenth Century: A Catalogue''. Oxford: Oxford Bibliographical Society. *Bringhurst, Robert (2004). ''The Elements of Typographic Style''. Point Roberts, WA: Hartley & Marks. *''

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'' (1917). Vol. XVI. London: Oxford University Press. *Sandys, Sir John Edwin (1998 903-1908. ''A History of Classical Scholarship''. Vol. II . Bristol: Thoemmes Press. *Watson, John Selby (1861). ''A Life of Richard Porson, M. A.''. London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts.

External links

Greek Font Society
- free download of GFS Porson, based on the Monotype version
The Greek Font Foundry
- free download of Porson 0.8 Beta from an archived site resource Greek typefaces Letterpress typefaces Photocomposition typefaces Digital typefaces 1809 introductions Cambridge University Press