Ballantine Cover Font?
 

Hi Folks,

Here's an obscure trivia question I haven't been able to track down on the web:

Does anyone know the font used for the distinctive covers of the 1973 Ballantine paperbacks? Is there a Mac version, or a close approximation available?

This will help us do lettering for signs on our model railroad -- The Grey Havens, Lorien & Gondor

Thanks,
Maureen

Tolkien fonts
 

This may not be the exact font used by Ballantine, but I think you'll agree that it's fairly close.

tolkien.ttf

Alternatively, a number of Tengwar fonts are available, which are only a disadvantage in that they're illegible to anyone who isn't a Tolkien fan. The Quenya version is available from the main Barrow-Downs site (see here and possibly here)

I'm more intrigued than any well-balanced person should be by the name of Ballantine's font, so I'm still trying to track it down. I'll edit to include it if I manage to do that.

Thanks, that will be helpful.

The Tolkien.ttf is not at all Ballantine's cover font. It looks like the font used by the bootleg US paperbacks and related posters of the 60's/70's. However, we'll still find uses for that on our train layout (set in the early steam age of ME, shortly after the invention of the Iron Warg :smokin: )

Meanwhile, to keep hunting for Ballantine's font....

It would be helpful if there was a picture available. I can't seem to find one on the web.

Quite a few of the American paperback editions are here.

On a second examination, that font isn't terribly close, although it does have a similar 'e'. I don't have any American editions, but I'm sure that someone does. Perhaps the font is mentioned somewhere in the publication details (I seem to remember that my GA&A editions list the printer and typeface, but that might not be an international standard).

I own the red-boxed 1973 Ballantine paperbacks (with Tolkien's own drawings on the covers) and have checked out the info inside - alas, no mention is made of the font used. I will attempt to make time to search the fonts I have to compare them, but it may take awhile...

Lord Font-ahoy
 

Good quality paperbacks often list the font name at the back of the book, on a separate page, if it isn't given on the frontispiece with the publishing data.

Sometimes books do name the typesetting company, though, with that data. Could one do a net search for typesetting company name and contact them? Just a suggestion.

Last week I sent an email query to Ballantine, but haven't heard back.

I also asked them about their 1965 cover font too.

Hi,

Doing my own thread necromancy here since I finally found an answer to my question!

(My old log-in wasn't working for some reason, so had to create a new similar one.)

I recently found the website, http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/
Scanned in one of the 1973 Ballantine book covers, and that site quickly identified a number of possible matches.

The ones I like the best are:
Tribunus SG Roman
Tribunus SG Bold

Also, following in order of my preference:
Cadmus
Hadrian
Linotype Trajanus Roman

Thought I'd tidy up this thread in case anyone else is searching later.

Cheers,
Maureen