Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Times New Roman" in English language version.
Times looks like Plantin on a diet.
Plantin was a recreation of one of the old types held at the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp, of which a specimen, printed in 1905, had been acquired by Pierpont on a visit. The type from which the specimen was printed was not only centuries old and worn almost beyond use, but it was contaminated with wrong-font letters (notably the letter 'a') and the italic did not even belong to the roman. The revival, derived by Monotype from an indirect and confused original, is [nonetheless] as sound a piece of type-making as was ever created in the 20th century...behind the foggy image of the roman type lies the...'Gros Cicero' Roman of Robert Granjon, acquired by the Plantin printing office after the death of its founder.
The copyright law does not protect typeface or mere variations of typographic ornamentation or lettering.
[Shown are] overlays from the article 'The Evolution of Times New Roman' by John Dreyfus. He writes: 'These drawings demonstrate how severely the bowl of "p" has been reduced in the bold version, because mainstrokes have been thickened without drawing the bold version any wider.'
The new design is fantastic – it can be described as "the better Times New Roman". It's somewhat similar to Times, but with a touch of Fleischmann. Its lower contrast, enlarged x-height and less inclined italic all contribute to superb(!) readability, in both web and print. STIX Text is a neutral, non-invasive text face for continuous reading.
Some types look larger, size for size, than others, because they have unusually short descenders and ascenders. This allows more room for the 'x' or the middle part of the lower-case [but] a 'large x' is bound to waste space horizontally...the imperceptible condensation of Monotype Times New Roman puts it in a class by itself as a news face. In the wider book measure, however, condensation is no asset.
The original STIX fonts were based on a Times New Roman clone. The new #STIX2 faces are redesigned, inspired by 10pt metal Times fonts.
My assumption that the Lardent drawings for TNR are lost comes from two things: 1) Knowing for sure that no trace of them existed at Salfords, much to the company's dismay 2) Robin Nicholas' own frustration at never finding a trace of them, or hearing about them from anyone at the Times. I suspect that the reproduction of the drawings in "printing of the Times" may have been an enlargement of one of the reference photos originally made of Lardent's drawings.
The consensus appears to be that not only the wrong-fount a in the cases at Antwerp but also the italic that Monotype adapted for their Plantin (which can be seen on that first page of the 1905 specimen) may be the work of Johann Michael Schmidt (died 1750), also known as J. M. Smit or Smid.
One of the distinctive things about French calligraphy of [the 1680s] is that the lead-in stroke of letters like i, m, n and so on have flat, rather 'roman', serifs, making them look a bit like a 'sloped roman'...Fournier used it fifty years later in his 'new style' italics, and later so did Firmin Didot. And that French flat serif also turns up in...the italic to Times New Roman.
The consensus appears to be that not only the wrong-fount a in the cases at Antwerp but also the italic that Monotype adapted for their Plantin (which can be seen on that first page of the 1905 specimen) may be the work of Johann Michael Schmidt (died 1750), also known as J. M. Smit or Smid.
One of the distinctive things about French calligraphy of [the 1680s] is that the lead-in stroke of letters like i, m, n and so on have flat, rather 'roman', serifs, making them look a bit like a 'sloped roman'...Fournier used it fifty years later in his 'new style' italics, and later so did Firmin Didot. And that French flat serif also turns up in...the italic to Times New Roman.
The copyright law does not protect typeface or mere variations of typographic ornamentation or lettering.
