---
title: "Bodoni (1798) — Giambattista Bodoni"
description: "Bodoni was designed by Giambattista Bodoni in 1798. What it signals, where you have seen it, and how to tell it from Didot."
url: https://atoneplace.net/font/bodoni/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Bodoni

**Bodoni: Giambattista Bodoni, 1798**

Serif · Fashion. Extreme contrast, hairline serifs, expensive.

Hairline serifs meeting stems at a right angle, and a thick-to-thin contrast so extreme that the thin strokes disappear at small sizes or on poor paper. That is why Bodoni is everywhere in fashion magazines, which print large and on good stock, and almost nowhere in body text. It is the archetype of what type historians call a Didone.

## How to tell it apart

| Mistaken for | Which letters to check |
| --- | --- |
| Didot | Didot is French and slightly more delicate; Bodoni's serifs are a touch thicker and its curves fractionally less severe. In practice, at display size, few people can tell them apart and it rarely matters. |

## The facts

- **Designed by:** Giambattista Bodoni
- **Released:** 1798
- **Classification:** Serif
- **What it signals now:** Fashion. Extreme contrast, hairline serifs, expensive.

## Where you have seen it

- Vogue
- Elle
- Nirvana's Nevermind cover
- Mamma Mia

> This page describes the typeface rather than showing it. Displaying a specimen requires a licensed font file and almost none of these may be redistributed, so the descriptions name the letters to look at instead.

## Common questions

### Who designed Bodoni?

Giambattista Bodoni, in 1798.

### What is Bodoni used for?

Fashion. Extreme contrast, hairline serifs, expensive. You will have seen it on Vogue, Elle, Nirvana's Nevermind cover.

### What is the difference between Bodoni and Didot?

Didot is French and slightly more delicate; Bodoni's serifs are a touch thicker and its curves fractionally less severe. In practice, at display size, few people can tell them apart and it rarely matters.

## Related pages

- [Didot](https://atoneplace.net/font/didot/)
- [Typefaces from the 1790s](https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/1790s/)
- [Garamond](https://atoneplace.net/font/garamond/)
- [Caslon](https://atoneplace.net/font/caslon/)
- [Baskerville](https://atoneplace.net/font/baskerville/)
- [Didot](https://atoneplace.net/font/didot/)
- [Times New Roman](https://atoneplace.net/font/times-new-roman/)
- [Trajan](https://atoneplace.net/font/trajan/)
- [Georgia](https://atoneplace.net/font/georgia/)

## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]