Palatino in book publishing

Figaro
Figaro Posts: 10
in Type Business
Is there a publisher around the world that uses Palatino as official typeface for its books?
Tagged:

Comments

  • michele casanova
    michele casanova Posts: 67
    Italy: «Mondadori's Italian and foreign fiction is in Palatino, which resembles Garamond, some call it the "German Garamond"»
  • Figaro
    Figaro Posts: 10
    edited August 19
    I was under the impression that Italian publishing world was addicted to Simoncini Garamond... Nice to see that a big publisher such as Mondadori has bet on a different horse! Anyway, are you referring to a particular series published by Mondadori (Oscar, Meridiani, etc.)?

    P.S. I don't think Palatino resembles Garamond.
  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 3,056
    If some people call it “the German Garamond,” that is more about ubiquity than design.
  • Figaro
    Figaro Posts: 10
    Thomas Phinney said:
    If some people call it “the German Garamond,” that is more about ubiquity than design.
    According to a German friend of mine, "the German Garamond" should be Stempel Garamond, a very popular typeface in German book publishing. 
  • Igor Freiberger
    Igor Freiberger Posts: 295
    In Brazil, the huge publisher Companhia das Letras uses Palatino in all their biographies. They publish every kind of book, but use different typefaces for each category.
  • michele casanova
    michele casanova Posts: 67
    Figaro said:
    I was under the impression that Italian publishing world was addicted to Simoncini Garamond... Nice to see that a big publisher such as Mondadori has bet on a different horse! Anyway, are you referring to a particular series published by Mondadori (Oscar, Meridiani, etc.)?

    P.S. I don't think Palatino resembles Garamond.
    I just translated a recent journalistic source. I don't know if Palatino is used by Mondadori for any particular series.
    Other notable publishers:
    • Adelphi: Baskerville
    • FMR: Bodoni
    Generally almost all other publishers tend to use Garamond versions (Einaudi uses Einaudi Garamond).
  • Andreas Stötzner
    Andreas Stötzner Posts: 821
    I have never – never – heard someone calling Palatino a “German Garamond”. Would be nonsense, anyway. Greetings from Germany.
  • Figaro
    Figaro Posts: 10
    edited August 19
    @ michele casanova:

    If I remember correctly, Einaudi Garamond was designed by Simoncini and is very similar to Simoncini Garamond, the gold standard of Italian book publishing.
  • John Butler
    John Butler Posts: 340
    I've heard Palatino's sibling Aldus described as a garalde, which is arguable in terms of proportions, but I just think of it as Luigi Palatino versus classic Mario Palatino.
  • Stephen Coles
    Stephen Coles Posts: 1,025
    edited August 19
    I don’t have a direct answer to your question, but Internet Archive’s search could be useful for finding publishers who repeatedly use Palatino.
  • John Savard
    John Savard Posts: 1,176
    Aldus, which Hermann Zapf wanted to call Palatino Book, is, or at least was, quite common in books from Germany.
  • Stephen Coles
    Stephen Coles Posts: 1,025
    Sorting that archive.org search by creator (unfortunately, publisher is not an option), you can see a few series that are consistently set in Palatino. For more from the same series, click on the author name in the metadata for these books:
    This doesn’t mean Palatino was the official typeface for any of these publishers, but indicates that the typeface was specified in the style guide for these series at least. This list also shows Palatino seems to have been a popular choice in books designed for young readers.

Categories