T RAJAN

TRAJAN
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Trajan The Historic Typeface
nspired by Roman chiseled type and architecture, Trajan is a sophisticated and sleek serifed
font often associated with distinguished end elegant theatrical content and dramatic display
text. Made famous by type designer Carol Twombly, Trajan is named after the 13th Emperor of
Rome and successful soldier-emperor Trajan. In charge of erecting many of the distinct monu-
ments and buildings of the era, many buildings bear his name in the distinct chiseled small caps
renascent of the current typeface we see today. Trajans Column, built in his name, is one of the
best instances of these distinct stone chiseled small caps that inspired the current typeface. Pri-
or to Twombly coining and producing the typeface.

Emil Rudolf attempted to replicate the typeface

using lowercase as well by making Weiss in 1926. Es-
teemed type designer Frederic Goudy made the tran-
sition to entirely small caps in 1930 with his typeface
Goudy Trajan, the most comparable to Twomblys
Trajan with slightly thicker down strokes and similar
type anatomy. Finally, Warren Chappell created Tra-
janus Antiqua in 1939, something of a middle ground
that incorporates both lower case and small caps in its
typeset, and puts a slightly lower cap height on the Tra-
jan were familiar with. It wasnt until 1989 that famed
designer Carol Twombly actually scanned the chiseled
type into a computer and released Trajan through Ado-
be Systems, and it had something of a resurgence into
popular culture after years off the radar. Joined by Ado-
bes own director of type Sumner Stone, they recreat-
ed the missing letters and authorized whats said to be
the closest thing we have to an exact replication of the
original Trajan type. Trajan today is used widely in me-
dia production, and is associated with a sense of history,
elegance, momentousness, and mystery.
 Trajan appears on the DVD cov-
ers and poster prints of the Mummy
franchise, Star Wars Episodes I and II,
the Bionicle franchise, and many other
fantasy driven dramas that support
the fonts use. Often referred to as
the movie font, many say it is over-
used in film and cinema due to its in-
herently dramatic visual nature. Trajan
also appears in many university logos,
and a modified version is even used in
branding popular lingerie line Victorias
Secret. This elegant, timeless typeface
has a rich history and many uses as-
sociated with it, and I have no doubt
it will continue to navigate its way
throughout pop culture.
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 As an Old Style Font, Goudy Old Style upholds a simi-
lar air of archaic elegance as Trajan with minimal differences
in line weight, classically prominent serifs, and slight diaginal
stresses. While both retain a calligraphic quality, Trajans de-
sign more distinctly mimics the Greek etching it is based on
as a glyphic typeface. The glyphic quality of Trajan makes for
an ideal display font, but leaves something to be desired re-
garding readability due to its complete lack of lowercase
characters. Goudy Old Style, however, is often found in
body texts and can easily be read on the page.
 larger cap heigh
t

larger x height

more chisled on tails, terminals,

and other external anatomy
ba8588
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d7a491
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efebd0, Why Trajan, the Worlds Oldest Typeface, Still Mat-

0,2,13,6 ters.Eye on Design, 11 Feb. 2015, eyeondesign.aiga.
Cool Gray 1 C org/why-trajan-the-worlds-oldest-typeface-still-mat-
ters/.

Trajan Font Family Typeface Story.Fonts.com,

d6cd96, www.fonts.com/font/adobe/trajan/story.
0,4,30,16
Trajan: the Movie Font.Mental Floss, 24 Sept. 2010,
5865 C,
mentalfloss.com/article/25879/trajan-movie-font.

Trajan from Adobe Originals.Trajan | Typekit, type-

a3a28 kit.com/fonts/trajan.
0,1,21,36
5783 C