Plantin was designed by Frank Pierpont and published by Monotype. Plantin contains 18 styles and family package options.
Plantin is a Renaissance Roman as seen through a late–industrial-revolution paradigm. Its forms aim to celebrate fine sixteenth century book typography with the requirements of mechanized typesetting and mass production in mind.
How did this anomalous design come about? In 1912 Frank Hinman Pierpont of English Monotype visited the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp, returning home with “knowledge, hundreds of photographs, and a stack of antique typeset specimens including a few examples of Robert Granjon’s.” Together with Fritz Stelzer of the Monotype Drawing Office, Pierpont took one of these overinked proofs taken from worn type to use as the basis of a new text face for machine composition. Body text set in Plantin produces a dark, rich texture that’s suited to editorial and book work, though it also performs its tasks on screen with ease. Its historical roots lend the message it sets a sense of gravity and authenticity. The family covers four text weights complete with italics, with four condensed headline styles and a caps-only titling cut.
