Bodoni had a long career and his designs changed and varied, ending with a typeface of a slightly condensed underlying structure with flat, unbracketed serifs, extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes, and an overall geometric construction.

"[5] In the English-speaking world, "modern" serif designs like Bodoni are most commonly used in headings and display uses and in upmarket magazine printing, which is often done on high-gloss paper that retains and sets off the crisp detail of the fine strokes.

Bodoni admired the work of John Baskerville[6] and studied in detail the designs of French type founders Pierre Simon Fournier and Firmin Didot.

Although he drew inspiration from the work of these designers,[7] above all from Didot, no doubt Bodoni found his own style for his typefaces, which deservedly gained worldwide acceptance among printers.

Writing of meeting him in the year 1786, James Edward Smith said: A very great curiosity in its way is the Parma printing-office, carried on under the direction of Mr. Bodoni, who has brought that art to a degree of perfection scarcely known before him.

Nothing could exceed his civility in showing us numbers of the beautiful productions of his press...as well as the operations of casting and finishing the letters...his paper is all made at Parma.

The manner in which Mr. Bodoni gives his works their beautiful smoothness, so that no impression of the letters is perceptible on either side, is the only part of his business that he keeps secret.

Although intended to be usable at text sizes, it represents the early period of the designer's career when interletter spacing was yet to be conquered, so has found use primarily in advertising.