Bookman is a sturdy workhorse design for legible blocks of text. Ed Benguiat based his 1975 revival on an 1860 design by Alexander Phemister for the Miller & Richard foundry in Scotland. The original Bookman, also known as Old Style, was designed to be an alternative text face to Caslon, improving what were considered to be Caslon’s undesirable traits; Phemister’s Bookman had slighter serifs, shorter ascenders and descenders, and a more prominent vertical stress. Benguiat added new weights and expanded the x-height to create a straightforward look that is well-suited to both book design and display applications.
