Typeface · Serif
Hess Old Style
Hess Old Style is an old style serif font, designed by Sol Hess for Lanston Monotype based on designs of Nicolas Jenson from 1479.
About Hess Old Style
Hess Old Style is an old style serif font, designed by Sol Hess for Lanston Monotype based on designs of Nicolas Jenson from 1479. It was released in 1920 with a companion italic made available in 1923. It was intended by Monotype to compete with ATF's popular Cloister Old Style, but it is both neater and heavier, making it more suitable for hard-finish papers. Like most Jenson-inspired designs, it has a tilted cross-stroke on the 'e'.
From the Wikipedia article “Hess Old Style”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Using Hess Old Style in a book
Serif typefaces like this are the traditional choice for book body text: the serifs guide the eye along the line in long passages. Set novels at 10.5–12 pt with 125–140% leading.
Commercial typefaces require a licence that covers embedding in PDFs and ebooks; check the foundry's licence before you publish.
Sources & data
- Structured data from Wikidata Q17004509 (CC0).
- Summary text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).