reverse-contrast typefaces

{{see also|Didone (typography)|label 1=Didone typefaces}}

File:01 Humanística.svg, based on 1470s Venetian printing. The narrowest part of the stroke is at top left/bottom right, so the axis is diagonal.]]

Throughout the development of the modern Latin alphabet with an upper-case based on Roman square capitals and lower-case based on handwriting, it has been the norm for the vertical lines to generally be slightly thicker than the horizontals. Early 'roman' or 'antiqua' type followed this model, often placing the thinnest point of letters at an angle and downstrokes heavier than upstrokes, mimicking the writing of a right-handed writer holding a quill pen. (The Hebrew alphabet, in contrast, is normally "reverse-contrast" from a Latin-alphabet perspective, as the verticals are lighter.{{cite web|last1=Abel|first1=Naomi|title=Chosen Contrast|url=https://alphabettes.org/the-chosen-contrast|website=Alphabettes|date=9 November 2012 |access-date=15 September 2017}})

From the arrival of roman type around 1475 to the late eighteenth century, relatively little development in letter design took place, as most fonts of the period were intended for body text, and they stayed relatively similar in design and rooted in traditions of Italian humanistic handwriting.{{efn|This was not the only way in which fonts could appear different, however: differences in x-height, spacing, condensation and colour on the page can make body text fonts look different in design even if individual letters are not that different.}}

File:04 Didona.svg, from the late eighteenth century. The contrast has been increased and the axis of the contrast made more purely vertical.]]

File:05 Egípcia.svg.{{efn|Rockwell is actually from the 1930s.{{cite web|title=Sentinel's Ancestors|url=https://www.typography.com/fonts/sentinel/history/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428213121/https://www.typography.com/fonts/sentinel/history/ |archive-date=2019-04-28 |website=Typography |access-date=14 August 2015}}}} The serifs have been thickened and the contrast is minimal.]]

Starting in the seventeenth century, typefounders developed what are now called transitional and then "modern" or Didone types. These typefaces had a far greater amount of stroke contrast than before, with the difference in stroke width much greater than in earlier types.{{efn|Didone types were at the time called 'modern' for their sophisticated image; the name has fallen from use as they have become less common in body text from around the end of the nineteenth century.}}{{cite web|last1=Phinney|first1=Thomas|title=Transitional & Modern Type Families|url=https://graphic-design.com/2020/10/17/transitional_modern_type|website=Graphic Design & Publishing Center|access-date=30 October 2015}}{{cite book |first1= Cees W. |last1= De Jong |first2= Alston W. |last2= Purvis |first3= Friedrich |last3= Friedl |name-list-style= amp |year= 2005 |title= Creative Type: A Sourcebook of Classical and Contemporary Letterforms |publisher= Thames & Hudson |page=223}}{{cite web|last1=Hoefler|first1=Jonathan|title=Didot History|url=https://www.typography.com/fonts/didot/history/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170915203800/https://www.typography.com/fonts/didot/history/ |archive-date=2017-09-15 |website=Typography |access-date=11 August 2015}} These had more constructed letterforms, catching up to the steely calligraphy of the period, and daringly slender horizontals and serif details that could show off the increasingly high quality of paper and printing technology of the period.{{cite book |last1= Meggs |first1= Philip B. |last2= Purvis |first2= Alston W. |name-list-style= amp |chapter= Graphic Design and the Industrial Revolution |title= History of Graphic Design |location= Hoboken, NJ |publisher= Wiley |year= 2006 |page= 122}}{{cite book | last1=Sutton|first1= James | last2 = Sutton|first2= Alan |name-list-style= amp | title=An Atlas of Typeforms | publisher=Wordsworth Editions | year=1988 | page=59 | isbn=1-85326-911-5 | url=https://openlibrary.org/b/OL22453920M}} In addition, these typefaces had a strictly vertical stress: without exception, the vertical lines were thicker than the horizontals, creating a much more geometric and modular design.

A second major development of the period was the arrival of the printed poster and increasing use of signpainting and printing for publicity and advertising. This caused a desire to develop eye-catching new types of letters.{{cite book|last1=Eskilson|first1=Stephen J.|title=Graphic Design: A New History|date=2007|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven|isbn=9780300120110|page=[https://archive.org/details/graphicdesignnew00eski/page/25 25]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/graphicdesignnew00eski/page/25}} As a result, new styles of lettering and "display type" began to appear, such as "fat face" bold faces, sans serif letters, apparently inspired by classical antiquity, and then slab-serifs.{{cite book|last1=Mosley|first1=James|title=The Nymph and the Grot: the Revival of the Sanserif Letter|date=1999|publisher=Friends of the St Bride Printing Library|location=London|pages=1–19|isbn=9780953520107}}{{cite web|last1=Phinney|first1=Thomas|title=Fat Faces|url=https://graphic-design.com/2020/10/24/display_typestyles|publisher=Graphic Design and Publishing Centre|access-date=10 August 2015}}{{cite web |quote= It became clear that in 1805 Egyptian [sans-serif] letters were happening in the streets of London, being plastered over shops and on walls by signwriters, and they were astonishing the public, who had never seen letters like them and were not sure they wanted to.|last= Mosley |first= James|author-link=James Mosley|title= The Nymph and the Grot, an Update |url=https://typefoundry.blogspot.com/2007/01/nymph-and-grot-update.html|date= 6 January 2007}} These letterforms were a new departure and not simply larger versions of traditional serif letters.{{cite web|last1=Frere-Jones|first1=Tobias|title=Scrambled Eggs & Serifs|url=https://frerejones.com/blog/scrambled-eggs-and-serifs|publisher=Frere-Jones Type|access-date=23 October 2015}}{{cite book|last1=Nesbitt|first1=Alexander|title=The History and Technique of Lettering|date=1998|publisher=Dover Publications|location=Mineola, NY|isbn=9780486402819|pages=158–161}} Presumably to be more eye-catching, these new styles of letter were often extremely bold.{{cite web|last1=Kennard|first1=Jennifer|title=The Story of Our Friend, the Fat Face|url=https://fontsinuse.com/uses/5578/the-story-of-our-friend-the-fat-face|website=Fonts in Use|date=3 January 2014|access-date=11 August 2015}}

The earliest known reverse contrast typeface dates to about 1821. It was created by the Caslon Type Foundry in London (then called Caslon and Catherwood), presumably as a parody of the crisp, high-contrast "Didone" typefaces and lettering of the period.{{cite web|last1=Devroye|first1=Luc|title=Henry Caslon|url=http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-54976.html |website=Luc Devroye |access-date=10 August 2015}}{{cite book|editor-last1=Heller|editor-first1= Steven|editor-last2=Meggs|editor-first2=Philip B.|name-list-style=amp |title=Texts on Type: Critical Writings on Typography|date=2001|publisher=Allworth Press|location=New York|isbn=9781581150827|page=71}} A caps-only design, the foundry's steel master punches survive in the collection of the St Bride Library, London.{{efn|Barnes and Schwartz show images of surviving punches for the Five Lines Pica size from the 1830s, which was not the first size to be released.}}

The Caslon Italian typeface is very clearly "conceptual" in design, deliberately taking aspects of the fat face and one by one inverting them; Nick Sherman comments that it "shows a very literal approach to reversing stroke weight, so thicks become thin and thins become thick." It has very thick serifs, so the gap between the serifs and the main strokes making up the letters is very small, as can be seen on letters such as "E" and "S". To make the effect even more shocking, the triangular serifs were inverted (becoming thinner as they met the letter, not thicker), and the thicker line on the "A" was moved from its normal position on the right (the natural position matching the handwriting of a right-handed writer) to the left, making a letter that seems to have been drawn the wrong way round. Writing for Print magazine, Paul Shaw described it as "one of the most bizarre slab serif types of the 19th century."{{cite web|last1=Shaw|first1=Paul|title=Arbor, a Fresh Interpretation of Caslon Italian|url=https://printmag.com/paul-shaw/arbor-a-fresh-interpretation-of-caslon-italian|website=Print|date=5 October 2010|access-date=30 October 2015}}{{efn|Slab-serif letterforms were new at the time. The earliest dated example is woodblock lettering on an 1810 advertisement from London, then a series of fonts from Vincent Figgins of c. 1817.{{cite web|last1=Mosley|first1=James|author-link=James Mosley|title=The Nymph and the Grot: an Update|url=https://typefoundry.blogspot.com/2007/01/nymph-and-grot-update.html|website=Typefoundry blog|access-date=12 December 2015}}}} Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz describe it as "perverse [but] done with sureness and confidence."

The Caslon company called the type "Italian". Several display types at the time received exotic names: around the same time, "Egyptian" was applied to sans- (and then slab-) serif types and "Antique" to slab-serifs; this became increasingly common later in the century as more fanciful display faces were made. Shields writes that "I have found no evidence of examples earlier than Caslon & Catherwood's". Nicolete Gray was prepared to believe that it was "probably" Italian in origin, however she was influenced by the French writer on printing Francis Thibaudeau, who claimed in his 1921 book La Lettre d'Imprimerie that the style appeared in France during the First French Empire (1804–1814/15),{{cite book |last1=Thibaudeau |first1=Francis |title=La Lettre d'Imprimerie: origine, développement, classification & 12 notices illustrées sur les arts du livre |date=1921 |location=Paris |pages=432–434|quote=Dans notre classification, les dérivés les plus marquants de ces quatre familles classiques forment des sous-familles se subdivisant à leur tour en un certain nombre de variétés. La première sous-famille de l'égyptienne est l'italienne, dont l'usage des types noirs s'est perpétué jusqu'à nous, avec un succès presque comparable – dans l'affiche notamment – à celui du caractère dont elle est la doublure. Le type allongé de notre frontispice met du reste en valeur les parties qui l'en différencient, c'est-à-dire le renforcement très accentué en hauteur des empattements et des arrondis de tête et de pied, avec amaigrissement des traits de jambages intérieurs. A l'origine, sous le Premier Empire, on eut de ce type des formes archaïques avec appendices en crochets; d'autres avec pleins intervertis. Bien entendu, les blanches ombrées ne furent pas omises, de même que les perspectives. |url=https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AIKJSXEMIPUYV58O/pages/AXM46AKYEV7SQD9B|access-date=9 February 2019}} before its first known appearance in Britain.{{cite book|last1=Gray|first1=Nicolete|title=Nineteenth-century Ornamented Typefaces|date=1976|pages=32–33}} Shields (2008) rejects Thibaudeau's claim: "Thibaudeau seems alone...and does not credit any French foundry with the origination of the type. In my investigations so far I have found no evidence of examples earlier than Caslon & Catherwood's. ... The first French specimen with a confirmed date is Laurent & Deberny's 1835 broadside". Barnes also comments "I've never seen French or Italian sources",{{cite web|last1=Barnes|first1=Paul|title=Twitter post|url=https://twitter.com/PauloBarnesi/status/753127753738809344?lang=en-gb|website=Twitter|access-date=1 August 2016|quote=Gray says it was Italian in origin (via France), though I've never seen French or Italian sources...I am unsure of the full story}} but has left the design's origin as an open question. Reverse-contrast designs do slightly resemble capitalis rustica writing from Ancient Rome, which also has emphatic horizontal serifs at top and bottom, although this may be a coincidence. Other names such as Egyptian were also used.{{cite book|last1=De Vinne|first1=Theodore|title=The Practice of Typography, Plain Printing Types|date=1902|publisher=The Century Co|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/practiceoftyppla00deviuoft/page/323 323]|edition=2nd|url=https://archive.org/details/practiceoftyppla00deviuoft|access-date=24 November 2015}}

Within a few years of their introduction the eminent printer Thomas Curson Hansard had lamented them as "typographic monstrosities":

Fashion and Fancy commonly frolic from one extreme to another. To the razor-edged fine lines and serifs of [Didone] type{{nbsp}}... a reverse [of slab serifs] has succeeded{{nbsp}}... the property of which is, that the strokes which form the letters are all of one uniform thickness! After this, who would have thought that further extravagance could have been conceived? It remains, however, to be stated, that the ingenuity of one founder has contrived a type in which the natural shape is reversed, by turning all the serifs and fine strokes into fats, and the fats into leans. Oh! sacred shades of [eminent typefounders of the past] Moxon and van Dijck, of Baskerville and Bodoni! What would ye have said of the typographic monstrosities here exhibited {{selfref-inline|[shown]}}, which Fashion in our age has produced? And those who follow, as many years hence as you have preceded us, to what age or beings will they ascribe the marks here exhibited as a specimen?{{cite book|last1=Hansard|first1=Thomas Curson|title=Typographia: An Historical Sketch of the Origin and Progress of the Art of Printing|date=1825|publisher=Baldwin, Cradock & Joy|location=London|page =618|url=https://archive.org/details/typographiaanhi01hansgoog/page/618/mode/1up|access-date=14 September 2022}}

In contrast, Walter Tracy described the design in 1986 as "a jeu d'esprit, not meant to be judged in conventional aesthetic terms."{{cite book|last1=Tracy|first1=Walter|title=Letters of Credit: A View of Type Design|date=2003|publisher=David R. Godine|location=Boston|isbn=9781567922400}}{{cite web|last=Shaw|first=Paul|title=Caslon's Italian by James Clough|url=https://paulshawletterdesign.com/2010/01/caslon%E2%80%99s-italian-by-james-clough|website=Blue Pencil|access-date=23 October 2015}}

File:Typographic monstrosities.png|Hansard's 1825 gallery of ultra-bold "monstrosities!!!" The typefaces are blackletter, slab serif and the "Italian" type at the bottom. ("English" in the bottom two samples refers to the font size.)

File:Bilde-frost.jpg|A document printed in 1836, showing Didone (body text), "Italian" (the word "proceedings") and early sans-serif fonts. The "Italian" type is Caslon's Italian or a close copy. The document was printed in Michigan, showing how far the Italian style had penetrated around 15 years after its appearance in London.

File:Leavenworth Italian (reverse contrast) wood type.jpg|Reverse-contrast executed in wood type by William Leavenworth, c. 1830s{{Cite book |title=Specimen of Leavenworth's patent wood type, manufactured by J. M. Debow |location=Allentown |url=https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/specimen-of-leavenworths-patent-wood-type-manufactured-by-jm-debow-allentown-nj#/?tab=about |access-date=13 July 2022 |archive-date=13 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220713083449/https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/specimen-of-leavenworths-patent-wood-type-manufactured-by-jm-debow-allentown-nj#/?tab=about |url-status=live }}

The design was apparently successful, since it rapidly spread to the United States and elsewhere. An Italian type first appeared in the United States in an 1826 specimen of Star, Little & Co , and the George Bruce foundry of New York displays one in its 1828 specimen book.{{cite book|title=A Specimen Book of Printing Types|date=1828|publisher=George Bruce|location=New York|url=https://circuitousroot.com/artifice/letters/press/noncomptype/typography/bruce|access-date=24 October 2015}} Many versions of similar designs were released, both as metal and as wood type.{{cite book|author=Paul Shaw|title=Revival Type: Digital Typefaces Inspired by the Past|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n7e0DgAAQBAJ&pg=PA123|date=April 2017|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-21929-6|pages=123–4}}{{efn|Other digitised specimen books of the period showing Italians are Caslon 1841,{{cite book|title=Specimen of Printing Types by Henry Caslon|date=1841|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LVsJAAAAQAAJ|access-date=3 November 2017|last1=Caslon|first1=Henry}} Bruce 1869,{{cite book|title=An Abridged Specimen of Printing Types: Made at Bruce's New York Type-foundry|date=1869|publisher=G. Bruce's Son & Company|location=New York|pages=73, 190|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sPFBAAAAYAAJ|access-date=3 November 2017}} Boston, 1880.{{cite book|title=Original Faces Cast|publisher=Boston Type Foundry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z3ZQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PP106|year=1880|page=106}}}} Expansions of the concept included italic faces, confusingly called "Italian Italic", backslanted and sans-serif versions.

Around the same time, wood type was becoming popular for poster printing. Previously metal was common for this since it could be easily cast in a repeated shape, but the introduction of the lateral router by Darius Wells in 1827 and the pantograph by William Leavenworth in 1834 allowed wood type to be mass produced. Wood type was much lighter than metal type and cheaper.{{cite web |last1=Shields |first1=David |title=What Is Wood Type? |url=https://woodtype.org/pages/what-is-wood-type |publisher=Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum |access-date=20 November 2021 |language=en}} Several Italian designs were released as wood type from 1837 onwards.

Several digitisations of the Italian style have been made. Peter Biľak's Karloff is a family of normal and matching reverse-contrast fonts with upper- and lower-case, together with a low-contrast slab serif design, all with the same basic structure. Biľak and his colleagues tried to strictly invert the contrast of a conventional Didone font and interpolate the two for the low-contrast slab serif. These have been released as Karloff Positive, Negative and Neutral, the name referring to Boris Karloff.{{cite web|last1=Biľak|first1=Peter|title=Beauty and Ugliness in Type design|url=https://ilovetypography.com/2012/09/25/beauty-and-ugliness-in-type-font-design|website=I love typography|date=25 September 2012|access-date=10 August 2015}}{{cite web|last1=Biľak|first1=Peter|title=Conceptual Type|url=https://www.typotheque.com/articles/conceptual_type|website=Typotheque|date=24 February 2011 |access-date=25 October 2015}}{{cite web|last1=Shinn|first1=Nick|author-link=Nick Shinn|title=Karloff Review|url=https://typographica.org/typeface-reviews/karloff|website=Typographica|access-date=25 October 2015}}{{cite web|title=Karloff Positive|url=https://www.typotheque.com/fonts/karloff_positive|website=Typotheque|access-date=25 October 2015}} A caps-only revival with extremely high contrast is Kris Sowersby's Maelstrom, which also has a sans-serif companion design.{{cite web|last1=Bantjes|first1=Marian|title=Maelstrom|url=https://typographica.org/typeface-reviews/maelstrom|website=Typographica|access-date=3 November 2017}}{{cite web |last1=Heck |first1=Bethany |title=Review: Maelstrom |url=https://fontreviewjournal.com/maelstrom|website=Font Review Journal |date=22 July 2018 |access-date=29 July 2018}}{{cite web |last1=Sowersby |first1=Kris |title=Maelstrom Design Information |url=https://klim.co.nz/blog/maelstrom-design-information/ |publisher=Klim Type Foundry |access-date=5 October 2018}} Paul Barnes of Commercial Type has released an Italian revival, along with extensive information on the research made for the project and a companion French Antique design (see below).{{cite web|last1=Barnes|first1=Paul|title=Caslon Italian |website=Modern Typography |url=http://moderntypography.com/Typedesign/Classics/CaslonItalian/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107014049/http://moderntypography.com/Typedesign/Classics/CaslonItalian/index.html |archive-date=2017-11-07 |access-date=23 October 2015}} Village Type's Arbor also a lower-case, while Match & Kerosene's Slab Sheriff is caps-only, with a "A" featuring the conventional stress on the right.{{cite web|last1=Sheldon|first1=Alex|title=Slab Sheriff|url=https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/matchandkerosene/slab-sheriff/|website=MyFonts|publisher=Match and Kerosene|access-date=23 October 2015}}{{cite web|title=Arbor|url=https://vllg.com/constellation/arbor|publisher=Village Type|access-date=23 October 2015}} Another digitisation was made by Justin Howes for private use.

{{see also|Clarendon (typeface)#French Clarendon|label 1=French Clarendon type}}

File:French Clarendon.png

File:French Clarendon wood type.jpg

File:Bekleidung und Ausrüstung - Aviso - Laibach - Mehrsprachiges Plakat 1914.jpg.]]

The reverse-contrast idea fused with a separate genre of slab-serif face, known as Clarendons. In the mid to late nineteenth century, it became popular for type foundries to offer reverse-contrast variants of Clarendon, a popular slab serif type genre, especially in the United States, creating large block serifs at the top and bottom of the letter. This was known as "French Clarendon" type.{{cite book |last1= Provan |first1= Archie |first2= Alexander S. |last2= Lawson |name-list-style= amp |title= 100 Type Histories |volume= 1 |publisher= National Composition Association |location= Arlington, VA |year= 1983 |pages= 20–21}}{{Cite web|url = https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/bitstream/p-t-barnum/|title = P.T. Barnum|website = MyFonts}} The advantage of French Clarendon type was that it allowed very large, eye-catching serifs while the letters remained narrow, suiting the desire of poster-makers for condensed but very bold type.{{cite web|last1=Challand|first1=Skylar|title=Know Your Type: Clarendon|url=http://idsgn.org/posts/know-your-type-clarendon/|website=IDSGN|access-date=13 August 2015}} French Clarendon designs were often created in wood type, used for large-print letters on posters. They are often associated with "wild-west" printing and seen on circus posters and wanted notices in western movies, although the style was really used in many parts of the world during this period. The style is sometimes called "circus letter". The practice was less popular with more artisanal printers: DeVinne commented in 1902 that "To be hated, it needs but to be seen."{{cite book|last1=De Vinne|first1=Theodore|title=The Practice of Typography, Plain Printing Types|date=1902|publisher=The Century Co|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/practiceoftyppla00deviuoft/page/333 333]–334|edition=2nd|url=https://archive.org/details/practiceoftyppla00deviuoft|access-date=11 November 2021}} In Europe the style was sometimes called Italienne, matching the Caslon name. In contrast to the original Caslon type, which features horizontals in the middle of the letter (like the cross-bar in the H) that are often but not always thick, French Clarendon types have the only thick lines at the top and botton, and all inner horizontals thin, and are generally less "conceptually" reverse-contrast, with serifs in a more conventional alignment apart from the thick strokes at top and bottom.

{{Quote box

|quote = Although Bodoni and Didot fuelled their designs with the calligraphic practices of their time, they created new forms that collided with typographic tradition and unleashed a strange new world, where the structural attributes of the letter-serif and stem, thick and thin strokes, vertical and horizontal stress-would be subject to bizarre experiments{{nbsp}}... Fonts of astonishing height, width and depth appeared: expanded, contracted, shadowed, inlined, fattened, faceted and floriated. Serifs abandoned their role as finishing details to become independent architectural structures, and the vertical stress of traditional letters canted in new directions.

|source = Ellen Lupton

|width = 25%

|align = left

}}

David Shields reports that the first type of the genre is the "French Antique" face of Robert Besley & Co. (which had released and copyrighted the first Clarendon face) in an 1854 specimen. The University of Texas at Austin, which maintains a large archive of American wood type, reports that the first known wood French Clarendon type was issued by William Hamilton Page in 1865.{{cite book|last1=Gomez-Palacio|first1=Bryony|last2=Vit|first2=Armin|name-list-style=amp|title=Graphic Design Referenced: A Visual Guide to the Language, Applications, and History of Graphic Design|date=2012|publisher=Rockport|location=Gloucester, MA|isbn=9781592537426|page=[https://archive.org/details/graphicdesignref0000gome/page/124 124]|url=https://archive.org/details/graphicdesignref0000gome/page/124}}{{cite web|title=Antique Clarendon Type|url=https://rrk.finearts.utexas.edu?page_id=1044#rev_slider_7_2|website=Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collection|publisher=University of Texas at Austin|access-date=23 October 2015}} Their collection shows the many other names used for wood type which display reverse-contrast characteristics, including "Celtic", "Belgian", "Aldine" and "Teutonic", as well as Italian again and sometimes "Tuscan" or "Etruscan" also.{{cite web|title=Tuscan no. 132|url=https://rrk.finearts.utexas.edu?page_id=238#rev_slider_10_3|website=Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collection|publisher=University of Texas at Austin|access-date=23 October 2015}}{{efn|The defining feature of 'Tuscan' fonts is that they have diamond points protruding from the letter and/or ornate serifs, but some were reverse-contrast also.{{cite book|last1=Lupton|first1=Ellen|title=Thinking with Type|isbn=9781616890452|page=23|date=2014-04-15|publisher=Chronicle Books }}}} (At the time a separation did not fully exist between genre names and typeface names, so these may be the names of individual types, or if they proved popular the name of the subgenre they created.{{cite web|last1=Kupferschmid|first1=Indra|title=Type classifications are useful, but the common ones are not |url=http://kupferschrift.de/cms/2012/03/on-classifications/|website=Kupfer Schrift |date=31 March 2012 |type=Blog |access-date=24 November 2015}}) At least one sans-serif typeface with reverse contrast was developed in this period.

A variety of more modern adaptations have been made of the style, including Robert Harling's Playbill (1938) and more recently Adrian Frutiger's Westside, URW++'s Zirkus and Bitstream's P. T. Barnum.{{cite book|last1=Frutiger, Osterer & Stamm|title=Adrian Frutiger – Typefaces: The Complete Works|date=2014|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=9783038212607|pages=346–351}}{{cite web|title=Playbill|url=https://myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/playbill|website=MyFonts|publisher=Linotype|access-date=11 October 2015}}{{cite web|title=Westside|url=https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/westside/|publisher=Linotype|access-date=12 September 2015}}

Writing on why he created a design in the genre, Frutiger, a designer better-known for his work in the sans-serif genre, commented:

As a type designer I wanted to draw something in every style. It's a matter of professional pride{{nbsp}}... I found the existing Italiennes with their big feet too harsh and strict{{nbsp}}... the fine curves in the serifs give Westside its own expression. A text set in this typeface looks like a weaving pattern{{nbsp}}... I really enjoyed drawing it. For one thing it was great fun.

Frutiger decided to return to the Caslon type's pattern of all horizontals being thick apart from those on "a" and "e", which he felt could not be fitted into this system.

Because of their quirky, hand-made design, lighter versions of the French Clarendon style were popular for uses such as film posters in the 1950s and '60s.{{cite web|last1=Ross|first1=David Jonathan|title=Backasswards! (presentation)|url=https://djr.com/pdf/backasswards_david_jonathan_ross.pdf|access-date=15 August 2015}}

A well-reviewed modernisation of the style has been Trilby[https://djr.com/trilby Trilby] typeface by David Jonathan Ross by David Jonathan Ross, who has written and lectured on the history of the genre.{{cite web|last1=Elnar|first1=Rachel|title=David Jonathan Ross Loves Contrast|url=https://type-ed.com/2014/05/05/david-jonathan-ross-loves-contrast|website=Type Ed|date=5 May 2014 |access-date=23 October 2015}} Released by Font Bureau, it is reminiscent of Clarendon revivals from the 1950s. It attempts to adapt the style to use in a much wider range of settings, going so far as to be usable for text.{{cite web|title=Trilby|url=https://store.typenetwork.com/foundry/djr/fonts/trilby|publisher=Font Bureau|access-date=13 August 2015}}{{cite web|last1=Shaw|first1=Paul|title=Slab Happy: Trilby Reviewed|url=https://printmag.com/article/slab-happy-trilby-reviewed|website=Print|date=5 October 2010|access-date=15 August 2015}}{{cite web|title=My favourite fonts of 2009|url=https://ilovetypography.com/2010/01/21/my-favourite-fonts-of-2009|website=i love typography|date=20 January 2010|access-date=15 August 2015}} Bigfish is another modernisation inspired by lettering, in which the thickest stress is at the top.{{cite web|last1=Braden|first1=Felix|title=Bigfish|url=http://floodfonts.com/freefont/bigfish.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200814103702/http://floodfonts.com/freefont/bigfish.html |archive-date=2020-08-14 |website=Floodfonts|access-date=25 August 2015}} Some other adaptations have preserved the concept but changed genre, presenting sans-serif or script typefaces in the same style.{{cite web|last1=Ross|first1=David Jonathan|title=Backasswards!|url=https://djr.com/backasswards|access-date=15 August 2015}}{{cite web|last1=Larabie|first1=Ray|title=Sunday Evening|url=https://typodermicfonts.com/sunday-evening|website=Typodermic|date=31 August 2015 |access-date=24 November 2015}} Antique Olive of 1966 by Roger Excoffon is a well-known sans-serif design with subtle reverse-contrast aspects, particularly visible in its ultra-bold "Nord" style, while Signo is a sans-serif reverse-contrast design from 2015.{{cite web|last1=Peters|first1=Yves|title=Award: Signo|url=https://www.fontshop.com/content/awarded-signo|publisher=Fontshop|access-date=23 October 2015}}{{cite web|last1=Jenkins & Mickel|title=Aero|url=https://vllg.com/constellation/aero|publisher=Village Type|access-date=23 October 2015}}

File:Reverse-contrast lettering, Den Haag.jpg|Reverse contrast lettering on tiles at a chocolaterie at The Hague, Netherlands. Date unknown.

File:David Jonathan Ross reverse-contrast fonts and typefaces.jpg|David Jonathan Ross speaking on the history of reverse-contrast letters

File:Altair 8800 at the Computer History Museum, cropped.jpg|Various unusual stresses on the logo of the Altair 8800 computer, 1975.

{{notelist|30em}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• [https://rrk.finearts.utexas.edu Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collection] – extremely large archive of eccentric American wood types (often used in posters) at the University of Texas at Austin. Many photographs.
• [https://woodtype.org Hamilton Wood Type Collection], Two Rivers, WI
• [https://web.archive.org/web/woodtyper.com Woodtyper], Gallery and resource on wood type
• [https://circuitousroot.com/artifice/letters/press/noncomptype/typography/bruce Bruce's New-York Type-Foundry specimen books] – 1820s and later specimen books showing the designs issued by this New York company.
• [https://www.flickr.com/photos/taffeta/sets/72157636179625063/with/10083498474/ Gallery of nineteenth-century wood type] illustrating designs of the period.

{{Typography terms}}

Category:1821 introductions

Category:Display typefaces

Category:History of printing

Category:Letterpress typefaces

Category:Printing

Category:Slab serif typefaces

Category:Typefaces and fonts introduced in the 19th century

Category:Typography