Robert Granjon

Robert Granjon was a French type designer, printer and publisher. He worked in Paris, Lyon, Frankfurt, Antwerp, and Rome and is remembered as one of the greatest designers of italic types.

Granjon was trained as a goldsmith and from 1543 he started his career as a punch cutter in Paris. In 1549 he published his first book, a pocket edition of the New Testament in Greek and Latin. From 1556 he was active in Lyon as punch cutter, type founder, printer and publisher. From 1563 until 1570 he was active in Antwerp where he worked closely with Christoph Plantin. During the early 1470 he regularly attended the Frankfurt fair to offer his typefaces for sale. In 1578 he relocated to Rome at the request of Pope Gregory XIII to cut exotic type for the Vatican´s printing workshop and remained there until he died in 1589.

During his life Granjon produced nearly ninety typefaces: thirty Italics, twenty Romans, seven civilites, nine Greeks, a dozen exotics, half a dozen music faces, a few Hebrews, and an undefinite number of initials, arabesque ornaments and fleurons.