Caslon Rounded Font Family

With its oval like terminals, Caslon Rounded is a characterful sans display face. A variant of the condensed sans form that had been introduced in the 1830s to great success. With the ability to get as many characters in a line as possible, the condensed sans remains a staple of graphic designers today. In 1836, Caslon introduced a rounded style, the first of its kind, giving the form a warmer, almost humourous appearance as if inflated like a balloon, that seems more typical of the next century. Later they added an inline and ornamented version. In this new version, a lower case and italic variant have been added, fitting seamlessly with the original. With its playful and joyous appearance, Caslon Rounded is a design suited for all manner of applications, from graphic design, editorial design through to logos. 

Caslon Doric Font Family

Caslon Doric is a nineteenth century sans given the rigour, consistency and rationality of a modern sans family: of multiple weights, in multiple widths with matching italics, yet maintaining the charm of the original. As Brunel is the serif form we associate with this period, so Caslon Doric is the equivalent sans. After William Caslon IV, originated the sans type form in the second decade of the 19th century, the style initially stalled, and only in the 1830s did the form gain popularity. First in an all bold capital form, Caslon introduced the Doric form in the 1840s, before expanding the style throughout the century, finally adding a lowercase which we would recognise in the 1870s. From the original regular weight the modern Caslon Doric expands from a fine hairline weight to an emphatic fat weight, with matching italics and small capitals. With its distinctive hook like terminals it has the utility of the sans form whilst having a distinctive quality and is suitable for text and display setting.

Caslon Doric Outline Font Family

With a delicate outline and slight shading Caslon Doric Outline is subtle demonstration of a shaded typeface. Based on Caslon’s Doric an all capital normal width of sans, the outline was a simple variant of cutting a key line around the form with a slight swelling to give the impression of shading. Like Blake & Stephenson Shaded Sans, it is form designed to allow the printer to imitate the skilled engraver. First appearing in the 1840s, the addition of layering allowing two colour effects offer designers today an elegantly distinguished all capital form.

Caslon Doric Extended Font Family

Caslon Doric Extended takes the form to a new extreme of width; much expanded from Caslon Doric, it gives Caslon Doric Wide an almost normal appearance. This is a form that is far beyond the original 19th century model, yet sits harmoniously with the rest of the Doric family. Designed for use at all sizes, from short paragraphs of text through to headlines of all lengths, it is a face that dominates the horizontal axis.

Caslon Doric Condensed Font Family

The condensed sans is one of the most useful styles; it allows the printer and designer to make letters as large as possible in the smallest horizontal space. With flat sided shapes, letters virtually touch each other, creatingthe densest black with minimal interior counter shapes. Appearing in the early 1830s, virtually all British foundries, including Caslon, made all capital variants in the following decade, with only Thorowgood making a lowercase version. Caslon Doric Condensed takes the original Doric style and merges it with the condensed style with lowercase that Caslon started to cut in the final quarter of the century, with its distinctive hook like and angled terminals. With ten weights from hairline to black with a distinctive angled italic, it is a highly useful characterful condensed sans.

Caslon Doric Wide Font Family

Contrasting with the density and economy of the condensed form that appeared in the 1830s, typefounders experimented with letterforms that did the opposite, creating the first extended styles. Caslon Doric Wide is one of two expanded versions of Caslon Doric, stretching the letters on the horizontal axis. Following the all capital Doric Expanded that first appeared in the 1860s and later versions like Doric No. 8, No. 10 & the last ever Doric No. 12, the new version comes in 11 weights from the fine hairline through to the emphatic fat.

Caslon Italian Font Family

Perhaps the strangest and ultimate example of experimentation in letterforms during the early nineteenth century was the Italian. Introduced by Caslon in 1821, it reverses the fat face’s stress—thins becomes thicks and thicks become thins—turning typographic norms on their heads. This new version extends the forms into new territory: a lowercase, an italic, and another one of the more unusual ideas of the time, the reverse italic or contra. Its limited success did not deter the typefounders from making another reverse stress form; the French Antique was less radical, but more commercially successful.

https://www.youworkforthem.com/font/T1462/caslon-antique

Designed by URW Studio in 1990 (William Caslon), Caslon Antique is an interesting and distressed serif font release. Contains language support for West, East, Turkish, Baltic, and Romanian.