Berlin’s Typographic Legacy: Dataset of digitized type specimens

The dataset (20 GB) comprises 327 digitized (and partially OCRed) type specimens printed in Berlin during the 19th & the first half of the 20th century – available under Public Domain Mark.

Type specimens range from just a few sheets to hardbound catalogs with more than 1.000 pages. Type foundries used them to market their offerings of typefaces, ornaments, & vignettes. These sales catalogs served to showcase the specific character of a font – with fictional advertisements & Dadaist cascades of words.

Beyond their value for research into the history of typography, type specimens’ creative significance should not be underestimated: Countless digital fonts inspired by historical models have been designed during the last 40 years.