Fournier MT

Pierre-Simon Fournier le jeune was an 18th-century French designer who not only created beautiful typefaces but also pioneered an early standardized typographic point system. Monotype's 1924 revival of his work captures his elegant, transitional style. His innovations laid the essential groundwork for modern type measurement.

The Fournier MT typeface was released by Monotype in 1924 as a faithful revival of the 18th-century designer's original punches. It translates Pierre-Simon Fournier's rococo elegance into mechanical and digital formats. It remains popular today for its legibility and historical charm.

Fournier MT features a lighter, more delicate look with a distinct French elegance compared to the more rigid English transitional types of the same era. It possesses a high bracket between the stem and the serif, softening its appearance on the page. This gives the text a warm, flowing rhythm unique to Fournier's rococo design.

Besides designing type, Pierre-Simon Fournier invented the typographic point system in the mid-18th century, which standardized type sizing for the first time. This allowed fonts of different sizes to be scaled and combined proportionally. Monotype’s revival of his fonts honors the exact mathematical proportions he originally intended.