The Holy Bible: New International Version, Zondervan edition, 1996
Title page
One day, reading a tiny Bible, which contained only a few books of the New Testament, I noticed this funny typeface, all squeezed together, which, even at a considerable body size, seemed to join the letters almost without spacing. However, I found it quite legible. Another day, with another Bible in hand, I recognized the same typeface. Shown here is the New International Version as published by Zondervan in 1996.
In my country, which is neither English-speaking nor German-speaking, I noticed that there was a notable emphasis on the use of this typeface, which seemed to be restricted to the biblical text. And indeed, in most bibles whose design is “traditional” (and which therefore seem to give the characteristic tone of an ancient text), ITC Weidemann was used frequently.
Only later did I discover that its author was also the designer of the trio of Corporate typefaces; but the point is that, to my delight, Kurt Weidemann had written an article for the amazing design magazine Visible Language.
The typeface started out as a custom design for the German Bible Society in 1979, under the working title Biblica. It was commissioned for a new edition of the Holy Bible, to be published in 1982 as the first Bible translation mutually sponsored by the German Catholic and Protestant Church authorities. The key challenge was to save space without sacrificing legibility. According to Weidemann, his Biblica is 20 percent more efficient than normal book types, and thus could bring down the number of pages from 1,000 to 800. He demonstrated this by visually comparing sample pages set in Times New Roman and Biblica, with identical sizes and similar layouts. The typeface was released in 1983, now renamed to ITC Weidemann. Make sure to read the full article – “Biblica: Designing a New Typeface for the Bible” can be found in Visible Language, vol. 16, 1 (Winter 1982), pp 49–62.
My intention is to show the work of this author, and the typeface, in which I recognize a strange beauty, as well as its extreme efficiency.
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Genesis
Gospel of Mark
Page from Mark, printed in two colors
Double page spread from Mark
2 Comments on “The Holy Bible: New International Version, Zondervan edition, 1996”
I love this face and have used it often!
(I think the kerning is fine, and the type doesn’t look 'squeezed together’)
Mr. Purcell: I agree with you. My text is unclear. I actually meant that, in the edition of the Bible that I had found at the time (I don’t remember which publisher, which version), the font had been deliberately compressed and distorted. But fortunately I only had to see the Zondervan edition, from which I took the images, to notice how beautiful the face originally is. I also think the kerning is fine.