University of California Old Style

University of California Old Style

Category	Serif
Classification	Old-style
Designer(s)	Frederic Goudy
Shown here	University of California Old Style metal type in regular and italic styles, compared to two digitizations: Californian FB and ITC Berkeley Old Style Medium.

University of California Old Style is a serif typeface designed by Frederic Goudy and created for the University of California Press from 1936–8.^[1] It is one of Goudy's most popular serif typefaces. It is also known as Berkeley Old Style and Californian.

The University of California is an 'old-style' serif typeface, one inspired by the styles of printing popular before the late eighteenth century. Goudy described it as particularly inspired by the 'Fell Types', a collection of 1670s typefaces used by Oxford University Press, while other details such as the tilted cross-stroke of the 'e' recall what is now called the 'Venetian' style of typeface design, used by printers such as Nicolas Jenson up to the 1490s. Intended for fine book printing, the design has a delicate grace and strokes that alternate between thick and thin. Serifs are fine slabs with minimal bracketing. Goudy provided a set of swash capitals as alternates for the italic.

Like many of Goudy's other families, it has been re-released and made generally available after his death, under a variety of (often shorter) names. While no longer the corporate typeface of the University of California Press, it retains a strong popularity in academia and is used as a corporate typeface by several universities.