A new digital revival of the Baskerville typeface, developed through a unique collaboration between researchers, heritage specialists and typeface designers, has been officially launched, offering the most historically accurate interpretation of John Baskerville's celebrated eighteenth-century type.
The launch marks a major milestone for the Small Performances project, led by the University of Cambridge and Birmingham City University, which has transformed understanding of Baskerville's typographic legacy through the study and digitisation of thousands of original steel punches used to create his typefaces.
The new typeface builds on years of research into the original Baskerville punches, many of which were recently digitised and made freely available online through the Cambridge Digital Library.
The newly launched font emerged from a series of international typeface revival workshops held in 2025 at the University of Reading, Atelier national de recherche typographique in Nancy, France and the École cantonale d'art de Lausanne, Switzerland.
Led by typeface designers Riccardo Olocco and Michele Patanè, the workshops brought together MA type design students to study the original punches and printed specimens in depth before creating digital interpretations.
The students worked directly from images of Baskerville's punches, analysing serifs, terminals, and the counters of certain letters while remaining faithful to the distinctive characteristics of the originals. Importantly, the punches helped clarify details that are often obscured in printed examples.
The result is a typeface that reflects the latest scholarship and evidence from the original artefacts, bringing modern audiences closer than ever to Baskerville's typographic vision.
John Baskerville established his printing workshop in Birmingham in 1750 and later served as University Printer at Cambridge. His typographic experiments put him ahead of his time, had an international impact and did much to enhance the printing and publishing industries of his day.
By combining historical research, heritage science and contemporary type design, the project demonstrates how cultural collections can inspire new creative work while deepening our understanding of the past. The launch of the new font ensures that Baskerville's legacy will continue to influence designers, publishers and readers for generations to come.
The newly launched Baskerville font is available free to download.
Download the fonts
Baskerville Punch font family: download. The fonts are distributed with an OFL license.