Cochin is a

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 ( ...

typeface designed by Georges Peignot for the Paris foundry G. Peignot et Fils (future Deberny & Peignot) in 1912. It is based on the copperplate engravings of 18th century French artist Charles-Nicolas Cochin, from whom the typeface also takes its name. The font has a small x-height with long ascenders. Georges Peignot also created the design Nicolas-Cochin as a looser variation in the same style.

Characteristics

With a very low x-height and delicate design, Cochin is described by Walter Tracy an example of a style of lettering and graphic design popular in the early twentieth century in several countries. Similar designs are Astrée and later Bernhard Modern and Koch-Antiqua, as well as several designs by Frederic Goudy such as Pabst and Goudy Modern. It had considerable success, for example becoming available on Monotype's

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 mo ...

system in the United States (Tracy describes this version as disappointing due to changes to the italic) and was also sold by

American Type Founders American Type Founders (ATF) Co. was a business trust created in 1892 by the merger of 23 type foundries, representing about 85 percent of all type manufactured in the United States at the time. De Vinne, Theodore Low, ''The Practice of Typogr ...

. In 1927 Monotype UK produced a typeface Cochin Series 165, Roman and Italic, based on an 1812-face Cochin 18c of the Peignot-foundry. The Monotype font has fewer high ascenders compared with other Cochin-fonts. This makes Series-165 more usable for long texts.

Releases

In 1977 Cochin was adapted and expanded by

Matthew Carter Matthew Carter (born 1 October 1937) is an English type designer.A Man of Letters

for Linotype, and this four-weight version is well-known today as a system font on

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

. Other companies issued versions of the design in the metal type era. The original Cochin and Nicolas-Cochin designs were also digitised by LTC and Linotype, and other versions are available from others including URW++, which adds an additional black weight not available from Linotype. Sol Hess designed a bold design in the same style. Badr is an Arabic font from Linotype by Osman Husseini which uses Cochin for its Latin alphabet. Cochin had a display open-face companion, with an empty space in the middle of the letter, named Moreau-le-jeune. This was sold as "Caslon Open Face" in the United States. A derivative design with boosted x-height is Academy Engraved by

Letraset Letraset was a company known mainly for manufacturing sheets of typefaces and other artwork elements using the dry-transfer lettering method. Letraset was acquired by the Colart group and became part of its subsidiary Winsor & Newton. C ...

Gallery

File:Nicholas Cochin Type Specimen (8090183979).jpg, Nicholas Cochin File:Nicholas Cochin italic.jpg, Nicholas Cochin italic File:Cochin Outline Initials.jpg, Outline capitals sold with Cochin

Uses

The typeface is used in the ''

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven Fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

'' covers produced by

Bloomsbury Publishing Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. Bloomsbury's head office is located on Bedford Square in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a US publishing office located in ...

. Cochin is used in ''

The Spiderwick Chronicles ''The Spiderwick Chronicles'' is a series of children's fantasy books by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black. They chronicle the adventures of the Grace children, twins Simon and Jared and their older sister Mallory, after they move into the Spider ...

'' (written by

Holly Black Holly Black (; born November 10, 1971) is an American writer and editor best known for her children's and young adult fiction. Her most recent work is the ''New York Times'' bestselling young adult ''Folk of the Air'' series. She is also well kn ...

and Tony DiTerlizzi). The Editorial Nascimento of Santiago Chile, used Cochin in many of its 6500 publications, which included books by Pablo Neruda and Gabriela Mistral from 1923 onwards. Cochin was previously a font option in iBooks for the

iPad The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...

but was replaced in version 1.5 when Athelas, ITC Charter, Iowan Old Style, and Seravek were added. The English alternative rock band Keane used the typeface for their first official logo.

References

External links

* {{OS X typefaces Serif typefaces Display typefaces Typefaces and fonts introduced in 1912