1470: the very first book was printed in Paris, France and a boom in typeface creation followed shortly after. It was here that Claude Garamond’s career as an engraver flourished, and his Garamond typefaces were created. Like many engravers, they were often commissioned for a single printer's exclusive use. Over time, they were sold or traded between printers.

Having designed many typefaces in his lifetime, it can be said that the origin of Garamond is not one typeface in particular, but rather his particular style, which was considered very contemporary and modern. Of course, Garamond has been modified and refined over the years, but this family of typefaces can still be said to be based upon Claude Garamond’s original designs from over 500 years ago. 

Garamond is one of the oldest printing press fonts. It has survived the centuries because of its remarkable readability and timeless elegance. An exceptionally popular typeface in print today, it is found in some of the best-selling titles available from bookstores, including every book in the Harry Potter series. From 1983 to 2001 Apple used Garamond as their corporate font, but later moved to a modern font that had been drawn with the limitations of early computer screens in mind. Since it is so popular, at MOTHandRUST we prefer to use alternatives, such as Sabon or Caslon.

Of course an academic journal wouldn’t reject a manuscript on the basis of typeface alone, but this Nature article suggests that for manuscript submission, Garamond or Times New Roman are favoured. And it is interesting to note that Calibri is not!

Project assets and other visuals are saved out in many different file formats. Understanding these enables our clients correctly save, send, and manage files, but this is not always easy!

Therefore, we have prepared the PDF (= universal file format) below that clearly sums everything up at-a-glance. We have been told that this is a useful reference...

It is always also really useful to understand that all file types can be classified one of two ways:

1. Raster
Raster images are made up of pixels, or little squares of colour. The pixels have a defined size depending on the resolution/quality of your image: high resolution has more pixels than low resolution. It is impossible to resize raster images without compromising their resolution/quality if you are moving from a smaller to a larger file. 

2.  Vector
Vector images resolve this resizing issue. They are constructed with proportional formulas instead of pixels. A vector image can be made as large as you like without looking pixelated and without compromising the resolution/quality. 

https://www.mothandrust.co.uk/files/File-Formats-At-A-Glance.pdf

Et voila!

As someone who runs a design studio, it is not uncommon to hold a design degree. However, I do have a neuroscience degree as well, and when people find this out, they always ask, “why?”