Pierre Simon Fournier - Career

Career

In 1723, the French government agreed that types should be subject to standards. By 1737, Fournier le Jeune decided to begin creating his punches to a scale of 72 points to the Paris inch, instead of the standard height-to-paper method. Thirty-eight years after Fournier took up this practice, Didot based his own system on the pied du roi, the French foot. Didot preserved his subdivisions, making 72 Didot points or 6 Ciceros to the Paris inch. Based on the Paris foot (=0,298 m). A foot was divided in 12 inches. Each inch or better "thumb" was divided in 12 stripes, a stripe was divided in 6 points. This point is smaller than the Didot-point, from F.A. Didot, that was based in 1770 on the legal "kings-foot". (~ 0.325 m). 12 point Fournier is approximately 11 point Didot With all of that, the traditional terms Parisienne, nonpareile, galliarde, petit romain went out the window.

Two years after developing the point system, Fournier decided to create his own type foundry.

When the Netherlands was seized by France, Louis XIV commissioned new types for use during his reign. The King kept the font as a monopoly to himself, with penalties against unauthorized reproduction. In the following century, Fournier's Modèles des Caractères (1742) continued the Romain du Roi style, but adapted it for his own new age. The typefaces that Fournier and successors created had such extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes, that there was a constant risk of the letters shattering.

Upon publishing Modèles des Caractères, filled with rococo and fleurons, Fournier's publication helped revive the 16th century concept of type ornaments. The revival spawned imitations, including some by Johann Michael Fleischmann and J. Enschedé.

By the 1750s, Fournier le Jeune was still riding high as a major player in the industry. Fournier acted as advisor to Sweden and Sardinia in the creation of their royal printing works, and helped Madame de Pompadour establish her own printing works.

On his wave of relative success, Fournier's interest of music had a chance to finally flourish. Working with J. G. I. Breitkopf in 1756, Fournier developed a new musical typestyle that made the notes round, more elegant, and easier to read. They quickly gained popularity in the music world. Ballard had previously had a monopoly in the printing of music, using Haultin's comparatively crude 1525 cuts.

Patenting his invention in 1762, he surprisingly was frowned upon by other printers, who initially didn't recognise the practice as legitimate. He published a historical and critical treatise on the origins and process of cast iron characters for music, in which he pled for acceptance of his own works, while blasting Ballard.

In 1764 and 1768 Fournier published "Manuel Typographique", his formal and systematic exposition on the history of French types and printing, and on type founding in all its details; including the measurement of type by the point system.