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ITC Berkeley Old Style

By ITC

Tony Stan
Frederic W. Goudy
ITC
ITC Berkeley Old Style is based on a typeface designed by Frederic W. Goudy in 1938 called University of California Old Style. It was a private press type for the publishing house of that school. In 1958, about ten years after Goudy's death, Monotype re-issued the type under the name Californian, and it became a very successful face for book typography. Goudy himself said he designed this face to have the greatest legibility possible, and it is indeed free from the exuberances in some of his other faces. Tony Stan redrew the family for ITC for 1983, and it was named ITC Berkeley Old Style, Berkeley being the city where the University of California Press is located. Stan did a careful drawing of eight styles including italics. ITC Berkeley Old Style is a crisply beautiful tribute to a distinguished typeface, and it works well for books, magazines, and advertising display.

In 1937, a friend of Frederic Goudy's asked the noted designer if he would draw a face for the exclusive use of the University of California Press at Berkeley. Goudy accepted the task gladly.

A little over a year later Goudy had produced the foundation for the new type family. He was pleased with his work; in fact, Goudy considered The University of California Old Style fonts to be among his favorite designs. Unfortunately for the graphic design community, the fonts remained the property of the university press and saw little use elsewhere.

In the early 1980s, ITC planned a revival of Goudy's California Old Style design. Aaron Burns, then president of the company, called Tony Stan and asked him if he would be willing to take on the project. Stan was a world-class type designer who knew a great design project when he saw it. He was delighted at the opportunity, and work on ITC Berkeley Oldstyle commenced (the name was chosen to pay tribute to the revival’s inspiration). Stan completed the design in 1983.

ITC Berkeley Oldstyle offers the flavor and dynamics of Goudy's original University of California Old Style without being a slavish copy. In fact, a close look reveals hints of several other Goudy designs in play: Kennerly, Goudy Oldstyle, Deepdene, and even a touch of Booklet Oldstyle.

The design is characterized by its calligraphic weight stress, smooth weight transitions, classic x-height and ample ascenders and descenders. These traits work together to create high levels of character legibility and a text color that is light and inviting.

Newly released is ITC Berkeley Olstyle Pro, in OpenType format. Now graphic communicators can work with this beautiful design while taking advantage of OpenType’s capabilities, including the automatic insertion of old style figures, ligatures and small caps. The new ITC Berkeley Oldstyle Pro fonts offer an extended character set supporting most Central European and many Eastern European languages, in addition to English.

Old Style Serif
Serif