Garamond vs Sabon

Sabon evolved from Garamond — a refined revival of Claude Garamond's sixteenth-century romans.

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 →
Sabon specimen — Jan Tschichold, 1967

Sabon

Jan Tschichold's 1967 Garamond revival — a refined old-style serif engineered to print identically across hot-metal, Linotype, and Monotype machines. The disciplined modernist's homage to a Renaissance master.

  • Garalde old-style structure derived from Garamond
  • Fully bracketed serifs flowing smoothly into the stems
  • Moderate stroke contrast with an angled humanist stress
  • Narrowed, economical set for three-way machine compatibility
  • Even, warm book color tuned for long-form reading
Full Sabon guide →

At a glance

GaramondSabon
Era1530s–1540s1967
DisciplineTypographyTypography
RegionFrance, ParisGermany
FamilySerifOld-style Serif, Garalde
Formal traitsold-style, bracketed-serif, oblique-stress, moderate-contrastold-style, bracketed-serif, moderate-contrast, calligraphic

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