Janson is a serif inspired by a style created in the Dutch Baroque era. Intended for body text, it’s an excellent style you can use in marketing or advertising. As a popular search item here at YouWorkForThem, we want you to appreciate the deep history of of this stylistic font.
There’s been some controversy over the decades regarding the creator. The font was initially thought to come from a Dutch printer and punch-cutter named Anton Janson. He lived in Leipzig, Germany during the 17th century, and became famous in death for something he may not have created–as research suggests the typeface actually came from a Hungarian priest and schoolteacher named Miklós Tótfalusi Kis.
Who Was Miklós Tótfalusi Kis?
Credited as one of the first printers and letter cutters of Georgian style fonts, Kis was actually Hungarian. As a priest in Transylvania, Kis traveled to The Netherlands as part of an attempt to print a Hungarian translation of the bible. While living in Amsterdam, he started another career as a punch-cutter and started working on commissions to create typefaces.
It was here where historians think Kis ultimately created the font attributed to Janson. Historians think the mixup occurred when Kis left his matrices in Leipzig where Janson lived. Much of this discovery didn’t occur until about 40 years ago, though no one has bothered to change the Janson name.
Janson Text in the 20th Century
Despite the use of Janson Text in many forms today, there wasn’t a revival of the font until the 1930s. This came from American printer and typeface designer Chauncey H. Griffith. With Griffith’s invention of the Excelsior font and its use in newspapers nationwide, he was already well-known as the sales manager of Mergenthaler Linotype Company. While there, Griffith brought back Janson text based on the original Kis matrices.
Later, in the 1950s, a slight variation came to light through Hermann Zapf at Stempel Type Foundry. The version Zapf created is more or less the digital version, published by URW++, you see used today.
Use of Janson Text Today
In the modern context, you can see Janson used in many publications still being read today. One of those is Architectural Digest, which uses the font as the body text in all of their articles.
We offer a strong collection bringing you the best font variations. With nine fonts available, you can get everything from Janson URW Light, Italic variations, and bold. All of these come from further enhancements of the font over the last several decades that can look appealing in any kind of signage or publication.
Janson is really one of the few fonts in the world still used after 400 years. As the old and new continually fuse into creating effective texts, it can help add something unique to your marketing efforts.
Contact us here at YouWorkForThem to find the fonts you need for your next creative project.
