William Caslon (1692-1766) was an English gunsmith and designer of typographic fonts.
His typefaces were influenced by Dutch types then common in England. His work influenced John Baskerville and are thus the progenitors of Transitional types , which in turn led to Modern types .
Caslon typefaces were very popular and used for many important printed works, including the first printed version of the Declaration of Independence. They fell out of favour in the century after his death, but were revived in the 1840s, and Caslon-inspired typefaces are still widely used today.
