page_title: Ehrhardt (typeface)
section_title: Modern history
hierarchical_section_title: Ehrhardt (typeface) / Modern history
caption_attribution_description: English: Italic types from the Ehrhardt specimen
context_page_description: Ehrhardt is an old-style serif typeface released by the British branch of the Monotype Corporation in 1938. Ehrhardt is a modern adaptation of printing types of "stout Dutch character" from the Dutch Baroque tradition sold by the Ehrhardt foundry in Leipzig. These were cut by the Hungarian-Transylvanian pastor and punchcutter Miklós Tótfalusi Kis while in Amsterdam in the period from 1680 to 1689.
  From 1937 to 1938, Monotype re-cut the type for modern-day usage, and it has become a popular book typeface. Ehrhardt has a slightly condensed design, giving it a strongly vertical, crisp appearance.
context_section_description: Monotype's development of Ehrhardt took place under the influence of executive and historian of printing Stanley Morison, not long after their successful creation of Times New Roman. It began from a recognition that the Janson designs were well-respected by fine printers of the Arts and Crafts period such as Daniel Berkeley Updike, who could print books from them using hand-set type cast from surviving original matrices owned by the Stempel company of Germany. Morison had discussed what he knew of their history with Updike in their extensive correspondence from the 1920s onwards. Modernised versions of the Janson designs for hot metal printing were being created by Linotype and Monotype's American branch at the same time. In addition, Morison was interested in the history of printing in Leipzig, a centre of the German book trade, and would later write an article on the topic.
   
  Ehrhardt's development took place following a series of breakthroughs in printing technology which had occurred over the last fifty years without breaking from the use of metal type. Pantograph engraving had allowed punches to be precisely machined from large plan drawings. This gave a cleaner result than historic typefaces whose master punches had been hand-carved out of steel at the exact size of the desired letter. It also allowed rapid development of a large range of sizes with the same consistent style of letter in all of them, although in fact the design was adjusted to produce a clear image at different sizes, for instance by widening the letters and spacing and increasing the x-height. In addition, hand printing had been superseded by the hot metal typesetting systems of the period, of which Monotype's was one of the most popular (in competition with that of Linotype's). Both allowed metal type to be quickly cast under the control of a keyboard, eliminating the need to manually cast metal type and slot it into place into a printing press. With no need to keep type in stock, just the matrices used as moulds to cast the type, printers could use a wider range of fonts and there was increasing demand for varied typefaces. Artistically, meanwhile, the preference for using mechanical, geometric Didone letterforms introduced in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was being displaced by a revival of interest in "old-style" serif fonts developed before this, a change that has proved to be lasting. At the same time, hot metal typesetting had imposed new restrictions: in Monotype's system (while less restrictive than Linotype's), in order to mechanically count the number of characters that could be fitted on a line, letters could only be certain widths, and care was needed to produce letters that looked harmonious in spite of this.
  Monotype developed a revival of the Ehrhardt typefaces using a rediscovered specimen sheet as a source, while simultaneously also working on Van Dijck, a revival of the work of Christoffel van Dijck (d. 1669), a slightly earlier Dutch Baroque punch-cutter. Ehrhardt's original working title was 'Old Holländische', according to veteran Monotype designer Robin Nicholas.
  Developed by the Monotype drawing office team in Salfords, Surrey, led by Fritz Steltzer, the project veered away from a purely faithful revival towards a denser, more condensed design. This differentiated it from the other Janson revivals on the market. Nicholas commented "I think it was Morison's take on Janson - made a little heavier and narrower to give improved legibility and economy." Typesetting expert Yannis Haralambous wrote of being told by a Monotype manager that the typeface was designed particularly for sale in Germany "to appeal to those who have a weakness for Fraktur" (blackletter or 'Gothic' typefaces, still very popular in Germany in the 1930s). In its dense design it may be able to complement blackletter well, and Morison in his article on Leipzig printing suggested that this might have been a motivation behind the original's design style. Ehrhardt's technical production followed Monotype's standard method of the period. The characters w
caption: Italic types from the Ehrhardt specimen
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