Click to enlarge.

SERIF: DIDOT
Bodoni: Italian, designed by Giambattista Bodoni, 1788. Didot may have appeared fractionally earlier, but this is the definitive Modern typeface.
Bauer Bodoni: German, designed by Bauer, 1790. Take the most elegant font and make it more graceful? Bauer did it.
Modern No 20: British, designed by Monotype, 1850. Vogue’s choice for their masthead. Why say more?
Walbaum: German, designed by J E Walbaum, 1800. The warmest, most affectionate Didot.
Fenice: Italian, designed by Aldo Novarese, 1977. Named after The Phoenix, the opera house in Venice.

SLAB SERIF
Clarendon: British, designed by Robert Besley, 1845. The first Egyptian or slab serif font. Groundbreaking Brits.
Gloucester Old Style: British, designed by Monotype, 1905. Cheltenham was American; here was the British response.
Joanna: British, designed by Eric Gill, 1930. Certainly the most graceful slab serif ever designed.
Melior: German, designed by Hermann Zapf, 1952. Zapf couldn’t draw an ugly line to save his life. Hands of gold.
Rockwell: British, designed by Monotype, 1934. Copying the earlier German Stymie and the American Memphis, this was the one I was accustomed to.
Lubalin Graph: American, designed by Herb Lubalin, 1974. Monoline and architectural.

Next: Serif Misc to Lineal Grotesque

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