Musical notes and letterforms, silences and white spaces, pentagrams and lines, music and writing have much in common and go beyond time, cultures, styles and locations. This new typeface emerges from the blend between the lyrics and the harmony, rhythm, femininity and luminosity of the traditional musical forms. It`s not about blues or rock, tango or salsa, instead it recovers the neoclassical characteristics of the current musical notation system and revitalize the essence of its signs. Taking care of both the function and the form, Elisetta has been specially designed for the writing of texts and musical sheets considering all its elements and communication needs. This source of inspiration also makes the font really good for extensive texts, since its design is based on situations that require high line performance, great readability and high aesthetic coherence. With 5 variables that vary in weight and style, the typography gathers asymmetry and organic nature in vertical structure, narrow horizontal proportions, high x height and extreme contrast between black and white. Elisetta Book has been created for the writing of clear texts and long lines composed in small sizes inside and outside the pentagram; Elisetta Italic intensifies the organic nature of the musical keys by offering softer signs, contextual alternates and initial caps; finally, Elisetta Display increase and emphasize the contrast between vertical stems and horizontal lines to highlight short texts and titles. For those who love music and for those who like romantic forms, this typography has a lot to offer: Elisetta is the best option to write light words with style, compose clear and rhythmic lines and read comfortable paragraphs with high performance. You can tell everybody this is your font, how wonderful life is while you're in the world! * This typeface was originally designed and supervised as «Elisa», the main project of the Master in Typography at University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

ITC Cyberkugel is the work of British designer Timothy Donaldson, who occasionally likes to write with an extra-fine ballpoint pen. I like the spindly scrawny forms that it gives me when I follow all the usual 'italic' writing conventions", he says. And there lie the origins of ITC Cyberkugel, although the creative process was moved from pen and paper to software and a Wacom tablet. "I like the fact that people will be buying it to give them a 'human', 'organic', 'non-digital' look, and yet no ink has soiled paper. Although the movements of the hand are still the essence, the whole thing was created in cyberspace." The name comes from combining cyberspace and Kugelschreiber, the German word for ballpoint pen. ITC Cyberkugel is a fresh interpretation of traditional calligraphy."

Before Bodoni, there was Didot. With the publication by Francois Ambroise Didot of Paris in 1784 of his prospectus for Tasso’s La Gerusalemme Liberata, the rococo typographical style of Fournier de Jeune was replaced with a spartan, neo-classical style that John Baskerville pioneered. The typeface Didot used for this work was of Didot’s own creation and is considered by both G. Dowding and P. Meggs to be the first modern face. Three years later, Bodoni of Parma is using a very similar face. Just as Bodoni’s typeface evolved over time, so did that of the Didot family. The eldest son of Francois Ambroise Didot, Pierre, ran the printing office; and Firmin ran the typefoundry. Pierre used the flattened, wove paper, again pioneered by Baskerville, to permit a more accurate impression and allow the use of more delicate letterforms. Firmin took full advantage of the improved paper by further refining the typeface introduced by his father. The printing of Racine’s Oeuvres in 1801 (seen in our gallery image #2) shows the symbiotic results of their efforts, especially in the marked increase in the sharpness of the serifs when compared to their owns works of only six years earlier. It has been suggested that one reason Bodoni achieved greater popularity than Didot is the thinner hairlines of Didot were more fragile when cast in metal type and thus more expensive for printers to use than Bodoni. This ceased to be a problem with the advent of phototypesetting, opening the door for a renewed interest in the work of the Didot family and especially that of Firmin Didot. Although further refinements in the Didot typeface were to come (notably the lower case ‘g’ shown in 1819), we have chosen 1801 as the nominal basis for our presentation of HiH Firmin Didot. We like the thick-thin circumflex that replaced the evenly-stroked version of 1795, possible only with the flatter wove paper. We like the unusual coat-hanger cedilla. We like the organic, leaf-like tail of the ‘Q.’ We like the strange, little number ‘2’ and the wonderfully assertive ‘4.’ And we like the distinctive and delightful awkwardness of the double-v (w). Please note that we have provided alternative versions of the upper and lower case w that are slightly more conventional than the original designs. Personally, I find the moderns (often called Didones) hard on the eyes in extended blocks of text. That does not stop me from enjoying their cold, crisp clarity. They represent the Age of Reason and the power of man’s intellect, while reflecting also its limitations. In the title pages set by Bodoni, Bulmer and Didot, I see the spare beauty of a winter landscape. That appeals to a New Englander like myself. Another aspect that appeals to me is setting a page in HiH Firmin Didot and watching people try to figure out what typeface it is. It looks a lot like Bodoni, but it isn't!