P22 Franklin's Caslon Set Font

January 17, 2006, marks the 300th birthday of our most remarkable Founding FatherÑBenjamin Franklin. He was an extraordinary man of his time, and his astonishing achievements as writer, printer, scientist, inventor, civic leader, and diplomat, are still relevant to our times. Among his many inventions are bifocals, the lightning rod, and the Pennsylvanian fire-place; his printing skills helped to establish America's paper currency system; and he founded America's first lending library, first public hospital, and one of the first fire companies.

To bring Franklin's legacy to life, the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary has organized a traveling exhibition, Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World, which opens in Philadelphia and then travels to St. Louis, Houston, Denver and Atlanta before its final showing in Paris. Its interactive multimedia exhibits, combined with the largest collection of original Franklin materials ever assembled, convey the genius and imagination of this exceptional man.

Benjamin Franklin's place in American printing history is well established. Franklin corresponded with then contemporary type designers: Baskerville, Caslon, Fournier, Didot, & Bodoni who are legendary and still revered today. While he championed Baskerville and his types, Franklin used Caslon fonts on many of his printed works. It is from these works that this digital font set was derived.

This font set includes faithfully reproduced letterforms digitized directly from images of impressions made by Benjamin Franklin and his printing office circa 1750. The printing conditions of the time involved handmade paper with textured surfaces and handmade inks which were hand-applied for each impression. The handcrafted printing of each page was not slick by today's standards, but the beautiful page composition and the refined Roman letterforms yielded handsome work that is difficult to reproduce today. By digitizing the printed type in its real-life state, an authentic look of Franklin's actual work is achieved and, ultimately, has a timeless appeal.

"P22 Franklin Caslon Ornaments" is a font of typographic ornaments as found in many of Benjamin Franklin's printed pieces including title pages, bookplates, lottery tickets and of course Poor Richard's Almanack. Additional ornaments from the Caslon foundry of the mid 1700s are also included. The ornaments have the same irregular edges as the lettering fonts in this set.