Baskerville
John Baskerville's types were sharper and more contrasted than anything before them, and this revival keeps the clarity while adding the generous x-height that web use demanded. The practical consequence is that it stays legible a point smaller than the old-style faces, which is worth real money when you are paying per printed page.
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago … having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.
It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.
The sea-reach of the Thames stretched before us like the beginning of an interminable waterway, and she said nothing at all for a long while.
Use it for
Compact trim sizes, large-print editions, and readers who are not twenty-five.
Do not use it for
A book that wants to look old. Baskerville reads as clear and modern even though it is from 1757; Garamond is the one that reads as old.
What it decides
- Text face
- Libre Baskerville, transitional serif, by Pablo Impallari and Rodrigo Fuenzalida, after John Baskerville.
- Size and leading
- 10 pt on 15.0 pt (1.50×). Adjustable; this is where it starts.
- Paragraph indent
- 1.2 em, except the first paragraph of a chapter and the first after any break.
- Chapter opening
- Centred, sunk 22% down the text block, numbered in arabic figures, under a rule, with the opening words in small capitals.
- Scene break
- A centred * * * with space either side.
- Running head
- The book title on the left-hand page, the author on the right, in small capitals.
- Page number
- Centred at the foot. Roman in the front matter, restarting at arabic 1 on the first chapter.
About the typeface
Libre Baskerville is a transitional serif, drawn by Pablo Impallari and Rodrigo Fuenzalida, after John Baskerville. It is released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1, which allows it to be embedded in a document, including one you sell, without restriction or attribution in the book itself. The licences page reproduces the full text.
The print PDF embeds a subset of it, only the characters your book actually uses, so a three-hundred-page interior comes to a couple of megabytes rather than ten. The EPUB does not embed it by default, because an ebook reader has chosen their own face and size, often for their eyesight, and overriding that is the most damaging thing an ebook stylesheet can do. There is a switch if you want it anyway.
See your own book in Baskerville
Open a Word file and switch between all eight designs in a click. Free, nothing uploaded.
Format a book →