Rookledge’s International Typefinder (1991 edition)
Cover for Rookledge’s International Typefinder
Rookledge’s International Typefinder is a classic and essential reference. Best known for its 1990/1991 edition, it is now getting a little bit dated, but remains beloved by typophiles and typographers.
“Rookledge’s International” and “finder” are in Caslon 540 Italic in the colour purple. “TYPE” is in a Clarendon — possibly Bitstream’s Clarendon Bold Condensed — displayed as large as possible and reversed out. The remaining text is in ITC Century Book Condensed, also reversed out.
The Caslon/Clarendon/Century combination, as well as all being typefaces beginning with the letter C, are extremely conventional choices. But, the cover designer has made good use of the typefaces to make a bold and striking design.
The juxtaposition of medium italic with bold roman feels like a 1990s thing. The British newspaper The Guardian had a masthead that was Garamond Italic and Helvetica Bold between 1988 and 2005.
According to its acknowledgements page, the book is typeset on a Linotron 202.
The title page uses the same design as the cover, but in black-on-white and with the addition of the Moyer Bell Limited imprint (with a badly kerned “York”) set in Gill Sans.
Title page for Rookledge’s International Typefinder, with publisher’s imprint (and library stamp)
3 Comments on “Rookledge’s International Typefinder (1991 edition)”
I should’ve thought Litzenburg was there in this book I saw.
Litzenburg is there. Entry 668 on page 258 archive.org/details/rookled… (you may need to borrow the book for the link to work).
“Modified/Outrageous” … that’s my favorite typeface category!
We currently have 45 in-use examples for these 12 display gems, with Aki Lines and Bottleneck accounting for the vast majority. Here’s an advanced search query. “Florist” is Fleurdon. “Horseman Sidesaddle” was originally named Horseman Sidestripe.