A Jenson display font

[ktinkel]

I haven’t been paying attention to my Veer catalogs, until the one that arrived this week. Several fonts caught my eye, among them …

Nicholas, a display font based loosely on the Jenson model, designed as a companion to designer Nick Shinn’s Jenson revival Goodchild.

Nicolas Jenson’s 1473 original was plainly never contemplated as display type, but for headline purposes the enlarged x-height, refined weights, and tight letterfit of Nicholas seem to work very well. It is “big” in the same sense as Matthew Carter’s Big Caslon, which has been used effectively as a companion to Adobe Caslon.

I dislike Nicholas’s use in text, even at the large-ish size (20 point or so) shown in the catalog and on-screen. The letters seem cramped and uncomfortable. (For that, the same designer’s Goodchild would clearly be a better choice.)