What's the font used on the J.D. Salinger paperback covers?
Asked by
auspice (
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)
November 9th, 2009
I’m talking specifically about the iconic rainbow-striped paperbacks from the 90s and early 2000s. As in: http://bit.ly/2PZbUk
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11 Answers
It is either a derivative of, or very similar to Didot.
I agree that there are similarities, but it seems slightly different—the top serif on the F in FRANNY is slanted, as well as the top of the letter A. The site you linked to is pretty cool though… I’ll dig through and see if I can’t find the right font.
It’s Times (New) Roman. Heard of it?
(Completely serious, btw.)
I think I found it with the help of a better picture. Big Caslon
The serifs seems to match better.
I believe these white/rainbow stripe editions of Salinger’s books were published in 1991, a few years before Big Caslon was created.
In this video the typographer says the first edition paperback’s typeface was Times Roman (~5:56). Seeing as these white covers sought to reproduce the simplicity of the original design I would just assume it’s Times. Could be wrong though. The Calson arms of the Y (e.g.) match better indeed.
This is a dilemma.
@nxknxk – it’s not Times New Roman in the rainbow edition paperbacks. – the top serif on the capital F is different, as well as the capital A, not to mention the width of the outside bars of the N.
@johnpowell – nice work. I used identifont to come upon Big Caslon as well as Caslon 540.
I made this pic for comparison: http://imgur.com/9whMi.jpg
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