Times New Roman

morison described the times italic as influenced by didot family typefaces from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, calling it rationalistic and closer to the eighteenth century than earlier traditions. he later commented to historian harry carter that the times italic owes more to didot than dogma.

“He rapidly came to concede that the idea was impractical, and later wryly commented to historian Harry Carter that 'Times italic' owes more to Didot than dogma.”

morison used plantin as the structural basis for times new roman, building on its dimensions and overall proportions. lardent told printing historian james moran in the 1960s that morison showed him photographs of printed type, likely from the plantin-moretus museum specimen, which he worked from to create the finished drawings.

“Morison proposed an older Monotype typeface named Plantin as a basis for the design, and Times New Roman mostly matches Plantin's dimensions.”

perpetua was examined as a possible basis during development, and its sharpened serifs influenced the final design. microsoft documents that times new roman was based on experiments morison conducted using both perpetua and plantin.

“Based on experiments Morison had conducted using Perpetua and Plantin, it has many old style characteristics but was adapted to give excellent legibility coupled with good economy.”

baskerville was considered as a basis for the times project but rejected for not being condensed enough. wikipedia notes that the final design was often compared to baskerville due to its transitional characteristics and increased stroke contrast, particularly from the 1750s version.

“Bulked-up versions of Monotype's pre-existing but rather dainty Baskerville and Perpetua typefaces were considered for a basis, and the Legibility Group designs were also examined.”