Designed for the Monotype Corporation in the early 1900s by F.H. Pierpont, Plantin is named for the sixteenth-century Antwerp printer Christophe Plantin. Although not based directly on his work, the model for Plantin was taken from the huge collection of type Plantin had procured.

Like Times Roman, this typeface was designed to conserve paper: it has a large x-height and appears slightly condensed. Plantin is a fine text face for books, journals, and textbooks.