The font I’ve chosen to use for the Grit & Oyster logo, and for headings on this site, is Garamond. I wanted to use a traditional serif font that has an elegance and I think Garamond fits this nicely. It is a classic and popular font, although one that is more associated with print than online use. But I think that is part of the attraction as I wanted something with a slightly ‘bookish’ feel.

Ah, but which Garamond?

History

There are a number of different font types that are called “Garamond” and the history of this font is a bit confused. As this article makes clear:

“Garamond is the original typographic naming disaster–a source of ongoing confusion. There are many types called “Garamond”, almost to the point where garamond has emerged as a category among serif text faces. What most of the Garamonds have in common is that they are more-or-less accurate revivals either of type cut by Claude Garamond in the late fifteenth century, or of type cut by Jean Jannon in the mid-16th century.”

Here are some more resources for this history of this classic font:

• Wikipedia entry for Garamond
• Wilkipedia entry for Claude Garamond
• Website created to commemorate the 450th anniversary of Claude Garamond’s death in 2011

My choice: EB Garamond

Wanting to stick with open source I’ve chosen to use EB Garamond by Georg Duffner which has been released with an Open Fonts License. This Garamond has some nice italics and also comes with a small caps version – so I’ve been able to make good use of these.

In particular, I really like the italicised ampersand which I’ve use to make the & in Grit & Oyster.

• More about EB Garamond
• EB Garamond at the Open Font Library
• EB Garamond on Google Web Fonts