Neacademia is a Latin and Cyrillic type family inspired by the types cut by 15th century punchcutter Francesco Griffo for Venetian printer Aldus Manutius. Beyond the letterforms themselves, however, the digital fonts themselves are based on the techniques and methods Griffo employed. The family comprises four distinct variants optimised for specific point sizes, as was traditional in metal type. While the display sizes maintain a visual link to calligraphic roots, text sizes exhibit more typographic qualities, following the hand of the carver. Likewise, Neacademia maintains its even colour on the page by carefully employing alternative letterforms, rather than leaning on a multitude of kerning pairs. A geeky little detail you’ll likely need to point out with a magnifying glass to your type friends, but creating a neat texture that works in readers favour nonetheless. Neacademia’s historically sensitive eye is put to work for modern typographers’ needs. It incorporates Griffo’s italic capitals and harmonizes them with the lowercase and the romans — where the original Aldine italics had no capitals of their own and simply re-used the uprights. It was designed with specific allowances for letterpress photopolymer printing. Printed digitally, it can tolerate – and even benefit from – low resolution, rough paper, and low-grade presswork. In many ways, it feels like using metal type again!