Adobe Originals
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Adobe Originals program began in 1989, when Sumner Stone hired Carol Twombly and Robert Slimbach to create a new series of type families for Adobe Systems. At the time, the desktop publishing revolution was in full swing, and designers had a growing need for high-quality digital fonts. The first typeface families arrived that same year: Slimbach's Utopia and Adobe Garamond. A reinterpretation of the Roman types of Claude Garamond and the italics of Robert Granjon, Adobe Garamond captured the essence of its models while offering all the advantages of contemporary typography. Versatile and beautiful, it would provide a blueprint for the many updated classics Slimbach and Twombly would add to the collection over the coming decade.
Slimbach and Twombly are not the only designers who have created Adobe Originals. The program also features typefaces from other award-winning designers, including Richard Lipton, Jovica Veljovic, and Michael Harvey. A parallel Adobe Originals program was even developed to provide Japanese-language fonts. Today, it includes the works of such designers as Masahiko Kozuka and Ryoko Nishizuka.
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[edit] What is an Adobe Original?
Not all typefaces produced by Adobe automatically become Adobe Originals. Three categories determine whether a design qualifies for the program.
First is aesthetic quality. Adobe Originals are designed to become timeless classics and feature a level of craftsmanship that only the world's best type designers can achieve. Typically, they are not intended for short-term fame but for use over a number of decades. As a result, many Adobe Originals have achieved enduring popularity — Myriad, Minion, Trajan, Lithos, and Adobe Garamond are some notable examples.
Second is technical excellence. Adobe's highly trained staff creates each glyph and parameter so that the font rasterizes as sharply and accurately as possible. They ensure that the layout information is what's best for the individual typeface design and that the font's tables are optimized for size and efficiency. Adobe engineers are also constantly striving to improve type technology, in conjunction with its designers. Over the years, Adobe defined the Type 1 font format, defined Expert supplemental sets, invented Multiple Master fonts, and worked with Microsoft to define OpenType.
Third is richness in character sets and optical sizes. In addition to providing fonts for a wide variety of alphabets, Adobe Originals also take into account the fact that the human eye views type differently at different sizes. In the 1880s and earlier, designers created separate fonts — now called opticals — to deal with this problem. When font production became mechanized, however, many font manufacturers used a single master that was scaled to reach whatever size was needed.
[edit] List of Adobe Originals families
| Year of first release | Family name | Type designer(s) | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Carta | Lynne Garell | This family was "grandfathered" by the program |
| 1986 | Sonata | Cleo Huggins | This family was "grandfathered" by the program |
| 1989 | Charlemagne | Carol Twombly | |
| 1989 | Cottonwood | Barbara Lind, Kim Buker Chansler and Joy Redick | |
| 1989 | Adobe Garamond | Robert Slimbach | |
| 1989 | Ironwood | Joy Redick | |
| 1989 | Juniper | Joy Redick | |
| 1989 | Lithos | Carol Twombly | |
| 1989 | Mesquite | Joy Redick | |
| 1989 | Ponderosa | Kim Buker Chansler | |
| 1989 | Trajan | Carol Twombly | |
| 1989 | Utopia | Robert Slimbach | |
| 1990 | Birch | Kim Buker Chansler | |
| 1990 | Blackoak | Joy Redick | |
| 1990 | Adobe Caslon | Carol Twombly | |
| 1990 | Madrone | Barbara Lind | |
| 1990 | Minion | Robert Slimbach | 1991 Multiple Master, 1992 Cyrillic, 2000 OpenType |
| 1990 | Poplar | Barbara Lind | |
| 1990 | Tekton | David Siegel | Glyphset expanded by Christopher Slye |
| 1990 | Willow | Joy Redick | |
| 1990, 1991 | Adobe Wood Type Ornaments | Barbara Lind and Joy Redick | |
| 1992 | Myriad | Carol Twombly and Robert Slimbach | Glyphset expanded by Christopher Slye |
| 1992 | Poetica | Robert Slimbach | |
| 1993 | Caflisch Script | Robert Slimbach | |
| 1993 | Critter | Craig Frazier | |
| 1993 | Cutout | Gail Blumberg | |
| 1993 | Giddyup | Laurie Szujewska | |
| 1993 | Mezz | Michael Harvey | |
| 1993 | Mythos | Min Wang and Jim Wasco | |
| 1993 | Pepperwood | Kim Buker Chansler, Carl Crossgrove and Carol Twombly | |
| 1993 | Quake | Fryda Berd (a.k.a. Fred Brady) | |
| 1993 | Rad | John Ritter | |
| 1993 | Rosewood | Kim Buker Chansler, Carl Crossgrove and Carol Twombly | |
| 1993 | Sanvito | Robert Slimbach | |
| 1993 | Studz | Michael Harvey | |
| 1993 | Toolbox | Brian Strysko | |
| 1993 | Viva | Carol Twombly | |
| 1993 | Zebrawood | Kim Buker Chansler, Carl Crossgrove and Carol Twombly | |
| 1994 | Nueva | Carol Twombly | |
| 1994 | Penumbra | Lance Hidy | |
| 1995 | Alexa | John Benson | |
| 1995 | Balzano | John Benson | |
| 1995 | Caliban | John Benson | |
| 1995 | Galahad | Alan Blackman | |
| 1995 | Adobe Jenson | Robert Slimbach | |
| 1995 | Jimbo | Jim Parkinson | |
| 1996 | Andreas | Michael Harvey | |
| 1996 | Conga Brava | Michael Harvey | |
| 1996 | Cronos | Robert Slimbach | |
| 1996 | Kepler | Robert Slimbach | |
| 1996 | Mojo | Jim Parkinson | |
| 1996 | Ouch! | Joachim Müller-Lancé | |
| 1996 | Shuriken Boy | Joachim Müller-Lancé | |
| 1997 | Banshee | Tim Donaldson | |
| 1997 | Bickham Script | Richard Lipton | |
| 1997 | Chaparral | Carol Twombly | |
| 1997 | Ex Ponto | Jovica Veljovic | |
| 1997 | Flood | Joachim Müller-Lancé | |
| 1997 | Kinesis | Mark Jamra | |
| 1997 | Kozuka Mincho | Masahiko Kozuka 小塚昌彦 | |
| 1997 | Nyx | Rick Cusick | |
| 1997 | Waters Titling | Julian Waters | |
| 1998 | Fusaka | Michael Want | |
| 1998 | Immi 505 | Tim Donaldson | |
| 1998 | Postino | Timothy Donaldson | |
| 1998 | Reliq | Carl Crossgrove | |
| 1998 | Voluta Script | Viktor Solt | |
| 1999 | Blue Island | Jeremy Tankard | |
| 1999 | Strumpf | Mário Feliciano | |
| 2000 | Calcite | Akira Kobayashi | |
| 2000 | Moonglow | Michael Harvey | |
| 2000 | Silentium | Jovica Veljovic | |
| 2000 | Warnock | Robert Slimbach | |
| 2001 | Kozuka Gothic | Masahiko Kozuka 小塚昌彦 | |
| 2001 | Montara | Jim Parkinson | |
| 2002 | Brioso | Robert Slimbach | |
| 2003 | Ryo Display | Ryoko Nishizuka 西塚涼子 | |
| 2003 | Ryo Text | Ryoko Nishizuka 西塚涼子 | |
| 2003 | Sava | Jovica Veljovic | |
| 2004 | Adobe Arabic | Tim Holloway | |
| 2004 | Adobe Hebrew | John Hudson | |
| 2004 | Adobe Thai | Fiona Ross, John Hudson and Tim Holloway | |
| 2004 | Ryo Gothic | Ryoko Nishizuka 西塚涼子 | |
| 2005 | Garamond Premier | Robert Slimbach | |
| 2006 | Kazuraki | Ryoko Nishizuka 西塚涼子 | |
| 2007 | Arno | Robert Slimbach | |
| 2007, 2008 | Hypatia Sans | Thomas Phinney | Roman fonts 2007, Italic fonts 2008 |
[edit] The future
Adobe Originals continues as a vibrant and evolving program. Nowadays, its focus lies in creating the most versatile text composition families available. Where the early Adobe Original, Myriad, featured only 228 glyphs in its first release, Arno Pro, released in April 2007, has 2,846 in the Roman and 3,223 in the Italic.
Adobe plans to release many more Adobe Originals in the years to come. And while the program will continue to adapt as new formats, opportunities, and typographic needs emerge, its tradition of producing innovative and broadly useful typefaces will always remain the same.
