A Brief History of the Garamond Typeface

https://image.linotype.com/fontlounge/fontfeatures/garamond/garamond_portrait.jpg

1. Name of the typeface: Garamond
2. Name of typeface designer: Claude Garamond (ca. 1480–1561)
3. Year it was designed: 1500s
4. About:

Garamond is Michelangelo’s David to the type world. It is a timeless masterpiece created by a classical craftsman and to this day is a cherished piece of history. Named for the French punch-cutter Claude Garamond, the typeface in its current form has a foggy past. What we now know as Garamond are modern interpretations of fonts that were inspired by drawings which were modeled after the punches of Claude Garamond. The original punches, long slender metal rectangles with individual letterforms carved into the ends, were finely-tuned and perfected during the early to mid 1500’s up until Claude’s death in 1561.

Garamond’s Original Punches (http://www.meaningfultype.com/garamond.html)

After his death, sets of his punches found their way into the hands of foundries and served as inspirations for many different typefaces in addition to the many variations of Garamond. It should also be said that not all of the Garamond’s in the world are the same. Some are modern interpretations, some are recreations of typefaces from the late 1500’s modeled after the original punches and a few are faithful modern recreations based on the original punches.

— Meaningful Type

5. Character Set: