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{{For|the English politician|Walter Tracy (MP)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Walter Valentine Tracy
| image =
| image_size = 200px
| birth_date = {{birth date|1914|02|14|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Islington]], London, England
| death_date = {{dda|1995|04|28|1914|02|14|df=y}}
| death_place =
| occupation = [[type designer]], typographer, writer
| spouse =
}}
{{Short description|English typographer}}
'''Walter Valentine Tracy''' [[Royal Designers for Industry|RDI]] (14 February 1914 – 28 April 1995) was an English [[type designer]], [[Typography|typographer]] and writer.

== Biography ==
Walter Tracy was born in [[Islington]], London and attended [[Shoreditch]] Secondary school. At the age of fourteen he was [[apprenticeship|apprenticed]] to the large [[printing]] firm [[William Clowes Ltd.|William Clowes]] as a [[Typesetting|compositor]]. When he had completed his apprenticeship, Tracy went to work in the typographic studio of [[The Baynard Press]], a printing house. From 1938 to 1946, Tracy had been rejected by the army's medical examination, he worked in an advertising agency as a print buyer.

From 1947 Tracy began to work part-time for the British Linotype & Machinery Ltd. (L&M) company, a subsidiary of [[Mergenthaler Linotype Company|Mergenthaler Linotype]]. The following year he was hired as a full-time employee by L&M, where he was going to spend the following 30 years.<ref name="oxdnb" /> There he became involved with designing typefaces for newspapers, and classified advertising. His typeface Jubilee, designed to be more robust than [[Stanley Morison]]'s 1931 font [[Times New Roman]], was adopted by a number of newspapers, and his Telegraph Modern was used by the [[The Daily Telegraph|Daily Telegraph]] from 1967.<ref name="Hutt Tracy 1973">{{cite journal |last1=Hutt |first1=Allen |author-link=Allen Hutt|title=Walter Tracy, type designer |journal=[[The Penrose Annual]] |date=1973 |pages=101–115}}</ref>

From the mid-1950s Tracy was also responsible for a range of influential Arabic type developments, among them the making of the Mrowa-Linotype Simplified Arabic type in collaboration with [[Kamel Mrowa]] and Nabih Jaroudi.<ref name ="Nemeth2013"/> In 1967 Tracy supervised a team steered by L&M's representative Hrant Gabeyan that developed the first computer for automated Arabic character selection and justification. The resulting system was developed in collaboration with the [[Compugraphic|Compugraphic Corporation]], and was first installed at the Egyptian daily [[Al-Ahram]].<ref name="Nemeth2017"/> It became an influential model for later systems such as the phonetic keyboard for Indian scripts developed by Linotype-Paul Ltd.<ref name ="Ross2018"/>

In 1972 Tracy was asked by [[The Times]] to design a replacement for Times New Roman. The resulting type was named Times Europa, and was adopted by The Times in late 1972. In 1973 he was elected a [[Royal Designer for Industry]].<ref name="identifont" /> Tracy retired in 1977 but remained active, designing a range of Arabic typefaces for Linotype, [[Letraset]] and [[Bitstream Inc.|Bitstream]].<ref name="oxdnb" /> In the same period he also designed a Hebrew font, under a pseudonym.<ref name="papers" />

Whilst some of his papers are held at the [[Type Museum]], London, his correspondence files, documenting the development of numerous important typefaces, are held at the [http://www.reading.ac.uk/typography/ Department of Typography & Graphic Communication], [[University of Reading]].<ref name="typem" />

Walter was married to Frances Tracy for many years. They latterly lived at "Cedar Court" in Finchley, London, a Grade II listed 1920s building. He died on 28 April 1995.<ref name=independent/>

== Typefaces ==
*Jubilee (1953)
*Adsans (1959)
*Maximus (1967)<ref name="maximus"/>
*Telegraph Modern (1969)
*Times Europa (1972)<ref name="europa"/>
*Telegraph Newface Bold (with Shelley Winter, 1979)
*Qadi (Linotype) (1979)<ref name="qadi"/>
*Kufic (Letraset) (1980)
*Oasis (1985)
*Sharif (Bitstream) (1989)
*Malik (Bitstream) (1988)
*Medina (Bitstream) (1989)

== Bibliography ==
*Nemeth, Titus ''Arabic Type-Making in the Machine Age. The influence of Technology on the Form of Arabic Type 1908–1993'', Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2017
*Ross, Fiona ''[http://tntypography.eu/resources-list/non-latin-type-design-linotype-fiona-ross/ Non-Latin Type Design at Linotype]'' paper presented at the ''First annual Friends of St Bride conference, 24 & 25 September 2002, [[St Bride Library]], London''
*Tracy, Walter ''Letters of Credit, a View of Type Design'', London 1986
*Tracy, Walter ''The Typographic Scene'' London 1988
*Tracy, Walter on ''Lanston Monotype's Series 54'' in Bulletin 39 of the ''Printing Historical Society'' Summer 1995
*Tracy, Walter ''Composing Room Days (and after)'' in Bulletin 40 of the ''Printing Historical Society'' Winter 1995/96 which includes a memorial Editorial with contributions by two of his colleagues Shelley Winter & Lesley Sewell.

==References==
{{reflist|30em|refs=
<ref name="oxdnb">{{cite book
|last=McLean
|first=Ruari
|title=Walter Valentine Tracy (1914–1995)
|editor=H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|year=2004
|volume=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography}}
</ref>



<ref name ="Nemeth2013">{{Cite book|title=Typography Papers 9|last=Nemeth|first=Titus|publisher=Hyphen Press|year=2013|isbn=9780907259480|editor-last=Kindel|editor-first=Eric|location=London|pages=173–189|chapter=Simplified Arabic: a new form of Arabic type for hot metal composition|editor-last2=Luna|editor-first2=Paul}}</ref>

<ref name="Nemeth2017">{{Cite book|title=Arabic type-making in the machine age: the influence of technology on the form of Arabic type, 1908–1993|last=Nemeth|first=Titus|publisher=Brill|year=2017|isbn=9789004349308|location=Leiden Boston|pages=109–129|oclc=993752295}}</ref>

<ref name ="Ross2018">{{Cite web|url=http://tntypography.eu/resources-list/non-latin-type-design-linotype-fiona-ross/|title=Non-Latin Type Design at Linotype by Fiona Ross {{!}} tntypography|last=Ross|first=Fiona|author-link=Fiona Ross (type designer)|date=9 February 2017|website=tntypography|access-date=13 August 2018}}</ref>

<ref name="papers">Tracy papers; letter to Misha Black</ref>

<ref name="identifont">{{cite web |url=http://www.identifont.com/about.html|title=Walter Tracy (1914-1995) |author= |date= |website=Identifont |publisher= |access-date= }}</ref>

<ref name="typem">"Smaller collections include the working papers of Walter Tracy RDI. " {{cite web
|url=http://www.typemuseum.org/museum.htm
|title=Type Museum
|publisher=[[Type Museum]]
|accessdate=6 June 2009}}
</ref>

<ref name="maximus">{{cite web |url=https://www.linotype.com/1219/maximus-family.html |title=Maximus font family |author= |date= |website=Linotype |publisher=Monotype GmbH |access-date= }}</ref>

<ref name="europa">{{cite web |url=https://www.linotype.com/13280/times-europa-roman-product.html |title= Times Europa |author= |date= |website=Linotype |publisher=Monotype GmbH |access-date=}}</ref>



<ref name="qadi">{{cite web |url=https://www.linotype.com/1379/qadi-family.html|title=Maximus font family |author= |date= |website=Linotype |publisher=Monotype GmbH |access-date= }}</ref>

<ref name="independent">{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-walter-tracy-1617836.html|title=Obituary:Walter Tracy |last=McLean |first=Ruari |date= May 2, 1995|website= The Independent |publisher= |access-date= }}</ref>

}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.typemuseum.org Type Museum]

{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tracy, Walter}}
[[Category:1914 births]]
[[Category:1995 deaths]]
[[Category:English typographers and type designers]]
[[Category:English designers]]

Walter Tracy - Revision history

imported>Running repairs at 22:01, 22 June 2022