Old Style Serif Fonts

Old style or humanist typefaces date back to 1465, and are characterized by a diagonal stress (the thinnest parts of letters are at an angle rather than at the top and bottom), subtle differences between thick and thin lines (low line contrast), and excellent readability. Old style typefaces are reminiscent of the humanist calligraphy from which their forms were derived. It has been said that the angled stressing of old style faces generates diagonal lock, which, when combined with their bracket serifs creates detailed, positive word-pictures (see bouma) for ease of reading. However, this theory is mostly contradicted by the parallel letterwise recognition model, which is widely accepted by cognitive psychologists who study reading. Old style faces are sub-divided into Venetian and Aldine or Garalde. Examples of old style typefaces include Adobe Jenson (Venetian), Janson, Garamond, Bembo, Goudy Old Style, and Palatino (all Aldine or Garalde).