With the Henry typeface, Matthieu Cortat provides a personal interpretation of the Deberny & Peignot foundry's Garamond, engraved by Henri Parmentier between 1914 and 1926 under the direction of Georges Peignot.
Its authors sought to recover the grace of the typefaces of Claude Garamont, while at the same time taking into account the reality of the modern paper industry, that uses wood based papers and not cloth based ones, as was the case in the 16th century. Henry is based on medium type sizes (9 to 14) of Parmentier's engraving. It is a quite slim Garalde, a little narrow, lean and slender. We feel an inspiration that is almost “Art Nouveau” in its z that leans towards the left, its winding a and J, the lower loop of its heavily curved t, the ample loop of its Q… These features are still visible in the italic with its changing rhythm and it s joyous ligatures.
Henry is a delicate typeface. Its design precise if not a little dated.