Garamond vs Minion

Minion was influenced by Garamond — draws on sixteenth-century French old-style models.

Type specimen — Garamond (Old-style serif); set in EB Garamond (OFL)

Garamond

Claude Garamond's sixteenth-century French old-style — the most refined Garalde of all and arguably the most enduring book type in the Latin alphabet. Pen-warm, even-colored, and effortlessly readable.

  • Moderate, gently modulated stroke contrast
  • Inclined (oblique) axis of stress
  • Elegantly bracketed serifs, slanted on the ascenders
  • Small x-height with graceful, long ascenders
  • Small eye in the lowercase 'e', open apertures
Full Garamond guide →
Minion Pro specimen — Robert Slimbach, Adobe 1990

Minion

Robert Slimbach's 1990 digital old-style serif for Adobe — a clean, neutral Renaissance-inspired text face engineered for the page and screen, and a default workhorse of professional publishing.

  • Old-style serif structure with moderate contrast
  • Gently bracketed serifs of even, restrained cut
  • Angled humanist stress inherited from the pen
  • Balanced, neutral proportions tuned for clean body text
  • Optical size masters from caption to display
Full Minion guide →

At a glance

GaramondMinion
Era1530s–1540s1990
DisciplineTypographyTypography
RegionFrance, ParisUnited States
FamilySerifOld-style Serif, Humanist Serif
Formal traitsold-style, bracketed-serif, oblique-stress, moderate-contrastold-style, bracketed-serif, moderate-contrast, neutral

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