“After apprenticing to a London engraver of gunlocks and barrels, young [William] Caslon opened his own shop and added silver chasing and the cutting of gilding tools and letter stamps for bookbinders to his repertoire of engraving skills. [He was encouraged] . . . to take up type design and founding, which he did in 1720 with almost immediate success. His first commission was an Arabic font for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. This was followed closely by the first size of Caslon Old Style with italic in 1722, and his reputation was made. For the next sixty years, virtually all English printing used Caslon fonts, and these types followed English colonialism around the glove. Printer Benjamin Franklin introduced Caslon into the American colonies, where it was used extensively, including for the offical printing of the Declaration of Independence. . . .
Beginning with the Dutch types of his day, Caslon increased the contrast between thick and thin strokes by making the former slightly heavier. . . . Caslon’s fonts have variety in their design, giving them an uneven, rhythmic texture that adds to their visual interest and appeal. The Caslon foundry continued under his heirs and was in operation until the 1960s.”

—Phil Meggs & Alston Purvis, Meggs’ History of Graphic Design, 2006.