Porson (typeface)
Encyclopedia
Porson is a typeface
Typeface
In typography, a typeface is the artistic representation or interpretation of characters; it is the way the type looks. Each type is designed and there are thousands of different typefaces in existence, with new ones being developed constantly....

 in the Greek
Greek alphabet
The Greek alphabet is the script that has been used to write the Greek language since at least 730 BC . The alphabet in its classical and modern form consists of 24 letters ordered in sequence from alpha to omega...

 alphabet based on the handwriting of the English classicist Richard Porson
Richard Porson
Richard Porson was an English classical scholar. He was the discoverer of Porson's Law; and the Greek typeface Porson was based on his handwriting.-Early life:...

, who, as his biographer writes, "excelled ... in writing with neatness and beauty" and "wrote notes on the margins of books with such studied accuracy that they rivalled print".

The face was based on Porson's transcription of the Medea
Medea (play)
Medea is an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides, based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BC. The plot centers on the barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in the Greek world threatened, and the revenge she takes against her husband Jason who has betrayed...

. Richard Austin
Richard Austin (punchcutter)
Richard Austin was an English punchcutter. He was the original cutter of typefaces Bell, Scotch Roman, and Porson. Born in London, he studied wood engraving under Thomas Berwick before joining John Bell's British Letter Foundry in 1788 as a punch-cutter, where he worked until the foundry closed...

 was commissioned by the Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...

 to cut it, from 1806 onwards. It was cast by Caslon foundry
William Caslon
William Caslon , also known as William Caslon I, was an English gunsmith and designer of typefaces. He was born at Cradley, Worcestershire, and in 1716 started business in London as an engraver of gun locks and barrels, and as a bookbinder's tool cutter...

, but it never appeared in their specimens, as the type was peculiar to Cambridge. It was completed and used only after Porson's death in 1808, in the editions of plays of Euripides
Euripides
Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...

 produced by Cambridge scholars. After its first appearance, it was soon copied by other founders, and was released by Monotype
Monotype Corporation
Monotype Imaging Holdings is a Delaware corporation based in Woburn, Massachusetts and specializing in typesetting and typeface design as well as text and imaging solutions for use with consumer electronics devices. Monotype Imaging Holdings is the owner of Monotype Imaging Inc., Linotype,...

 with some corrections in 1912. By the end of the 19th century, it has become the predominant Greek type used in Britain, with Victor Scholderer's New Hellenic typeface (favored by Cambridge University Press) the only notable exception.

Comparing with Greek types used previous to it (known as "Old Style"), Porson is characterized by its simplified forms and its abandonment of ligature
Greek ligatures
Greek ligatures are graphic combinations of the letters of the Greek alphabet that were used in medieval handwritten Greek and in early printing. Ligatures were used in the cursive writing style and very extensively in later minuscule writing. There were many dozens of conventional ligatures...

s and alternative forms, which have influenced later Greek, and even Roman
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...

 types. It has been described as "calm yet energetic", and used by the Oxford Classical Texts
Oxford Classical Texts
Oxford Classical Texts , or Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis, is a series of books published by Oxford University Press. It contains texts of ancient Greek and Latin literature, such as Homer's Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid, in the original language with a critical apparatus...

for over a century.

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