The first slab serif fonts appeared at the beginning of industrialization in Great Britain in 1820. Clarendon and Ionic became the names for this new development in England, known as English Egyptienne elsewhere in Europe. Clarendon is also the name of a particular font of this style, which, thanks to its clear, objective and timeless forms, never lost its contemporary feel. In small point sizes Clarendon is still a legible font and in larger print, its individual style attracts attention.

The first Clarendon was introduced in 1845 by R. Besley & Co, The Fan Street Foundry, as a general purpose bold for use in conjunction with other faces in works such as dictionaries. In some respects, Clarendon can be regarded as a refined version of the Egyptian style and as such can be used for text settings, although headline and display work is more usual.

Besley Clarendon ML is our version of the Clarendon registered by Robert Besley and the Fann Street Foundry in 1845. Besley Clarendon ML represents a significant change from the slab-serif Antiques & Egyptians that had become so popular in the prior three decades. Like Caslon’s Ionic of 1844, it brackets the serifs and strongly differentiates between the thick and thin strokes. Besley Clarendon is also what today is considered a condensed face, as a comparison to the various contemporary Clarendons will show. Robert Besley’s Clarendon was so popular that many foundries quickly copied it, a fact that caused him to complain vigorously. The reason it was so widely copied is simple ó it was extremely useful. It provided the attention-getting boldness to highlight a word or phrase, yet at the same time was compact and easier to read than the fat faces and antiques of the period. It wasn't until sixty years later that the concept of a typeface family of different weights was developed with DeVinne and Cheltenham. Until then, Clarendon served as everyone’s all-purpose bold face. It can be used for ads, flyers, headers or even short text. Don't leave home without it. Besley Clarendon ML includes the following features: 1. Glyphs for the 1250 Central Europe, the 1252 Turkish and the 1257 Baltic Code Pages. Added glyphs to complete standard 1252 Western Europe Code Page. Special glyphs relocated and assigned Unicode codepoints, some in Private Use area. Total of 353 glyphs. 158 kerning pairs. 2. OpenType GSUB layout features: pnum, salt, liga, dlig, hist and ornm. 3. Inclusion of tabular (std) and proportional (opt) numbers. 4. Kreska-accented letters.

One of the many Clarendon font designs, this one based in part on the Craw Clarendon design.

With a hint of flair and some nice update touches, Shenandoah Clarendon is a beautiful and modernized revival of the traditional Clarendon font. Adding new glyphs and measurements into the mix, it's sure to add a distinctive touch to your works!

One of the classic display types of the 19th century, an Egyptian with bracketed serifs. There are many variants of this face and its uses are many.

A revival of one of the popular wooden type fonts of the 19th century; suitable for text.

Since the release of these fonts most typefaces in the Scangraphic Type Collection appear in two versions. One is designed specifically for headline typesetting (SH: Scangraphic Headline Types) and one specifically for text typesetting (SB Scangraphic Bodytypes). The most obvious differentiation can be found in the spacing. That of the Bodytypes is adjusted for readability. That of the Headline Types is decidedly more narrow in order to do justice to the requirements of headline typesetting. The kerning tables, as well, have been individualized for each of these type varieties. In addition to the adjustment of spacing, there are also adjustments in the design. For the Bodytypes, fine spaces were created which prevented the smear effect on acute angles in small typesizes. For a number of Bodytypes, hairlines and serifs were thickened or the whole typeface was adjusted to meet the optical requirements for setting type in small sizes. For the German lower-case diacritical marks, all Headline Types complements contain alternative integrated accents which allow the compact setting of lower-case headlines.

Since the release of these fonts most typefaces in the Scangraphic Type Collection appear in two versions. One is designed specifically for headline typesetting (SH: Scangraphic Headline Types) and one specifically for text typesetting (SB Scangraphic Bodytypes). The most obvious differentiation can be found in the spacing. That of the Bodytypes is adjusted for readability. That of the Headline Types is decidedly more narrow in order to do justice to the requirements of headline typesetting. The kerning tables, as well, have been individualized for each of these type varieties. In addition to the adjustment of spacing, there are also adjustments in the design. For the Bodytypes, fine spaces were created which prevented the smear effect on acute angles in small typesizes. For a number of Bodytypes, hairlines and serifs were thickened or the whole typeface was adjusted to meet the optical requirements for setting type in small sizes. For the German lower-case diacritical marks, all Headline Types complements contain alternative integrated accents which allow the compact setting of lower-case headlines.

Clarendon is the name of a slab-serif typeface that was released in 1845 by Thorowgood and Co. (or Thorowgood and Besley) of London, a letter foundry often known as the Fann Street Foundry. This current design is a somewhat condensed version of the font.

The first slab serif fonts appeared at the beginning of industrialization in Great Britain in 1820. Clarendon and Ionic became the names for this new development in England, known as English Egyptienne elsewhere in Europe. Clarendon is also the name of a particular font of this style, which, thanks to its clear, objective and timeless forms, never lost its contemporary feel. In small point sizes Clarendon is still a legible font and in larger print, its individual style attracts attention.

One of the classic Clarendon fonts, always useful, originally created in the 19th century.

French Clarendon Bold, a display text type.

A revival of one of the popular wooden type fonts of the 19th century, suitable for display.

A revival of one of the popular American Clarendon wooden types of the 19th century.

Clarendon Rough is suitable for display and text. Its large x-height provides excellent legibility at small point sizes. Clarendon Rough is extended, aged to perfection, iconic, rugged, distressed, direct, and suitable for packaging, restaurant use, websites, magazines, lively headlines.

The Vernacular trilogy was designed by Swiss designer Hans-Jürg Hunziker, who had worked for Adrian Frutiger in Paris for many years. Based on the concept of a transitional Linear Antiqua, he has developed a colorful bouquet of typefaces that contain the entire spectrum of typefaces for book design and corporate identity. Thanks to his "Swiss school" and his outstanding skills, he has succeeded in giving the typefaces a particularly noble and sympathetic expression. In addition to the Sans family, there is a Serif family and a Clarendon family, each of which, including the separately drawn italics, is equipped with 12 font weights that are finely tuned to one another. Each of the 3 font styles develops its own character, but thanks to a concept that brings the different font styles closer together, they also work well together and complement each other perfectly. Sans and Clarendon have a vertical axis and similar endings in contrast to the Serif, which has a traditional diagonal axis and horizontal endings. The straight stems and the proportions are used as an element to stress the closeness of the typeface-trilogy. They thus share a comon feature. All fonts contain tabular and proportional figures as well as old style figures. Small caps and small cap figures are also available in all fonts. In addition, some fonts have alternative characters available via style set, such as «g», which can be used to further vary the typeface. Vernacular offers all the options for well-kept typesetting for print and web - for small and large orders.

The new Clarendon BT Pro typeface family features 450 glyphs in each font with expanded support for Central and Eastern European languages, and enhanced OpenType features including ligatures, diagonal fractions, superscript/subscripts and Case-Sensitive Forms. Clarendon BT is an updated revival of the square serif (also called Ionic or Egyptienne styles) with bracketed serifs, ball terminals and high xheights. These attributes give Clarendon BT a timeless appearance for a wide range of contemporary uses from websites, ads, publications and signage.

One of the classic display types of the 19th century, an Egyptian with bracketed serifs. There are many variants of this face and its uses are many, this a modified version lacking the teardrop or ball terminals on a, c, f, g, j, r, f, y.

By overwhelming popular demand, this is the wide display companion to Canada Type's Clarendon Text family. It comes in ten styles: regular, medium, bold, with small caps and oldstyle Figures counterparts, as well as stencil and sketch versions of the regular and the bold. All the fonts come equipped with superscripts/numerators, denominators, and scientific inferiors. The OpenType fonts also contain automatic fractions and class-based kerning. The Clarendon Wide fonts are available in all popular formats. Language support includes Western, Central and Eastern European character sets, as well as Baltic, Esperanto, Maltese, Turkish, and Celtic/Welsh languages.

The first Clarendon was introduced in 1845 by R. Besley & Co, The Fan Street Foundry, as a general purpose bold for use in conjunction with other faces in works such as dictionaries. In some respects, Clarendon can be regarded as a refined version of the Egyptian style and as such can be used for text settings, although headline and display work is more usual.

Clarendon Paint offers a gritty twist on a classic font style (Clarendon). It was completely hand painted which makes the font an organic centerpiece to any of your grungy design applications.

Youthful Fontsmith received a brief to develop a font that would form part of the broadcast identity for the UK’s first digital Freeview channel – E4. It needed to work seamlessly in text and display, both in print and on-screen, and please the eye of the target audience, 18-34-year-olds. So, young, fresh and informal. No problem. Except for one thing: the timing. Daughter As he worked on FS Maja, Jason Smith was occupied by another imminent deadline: the birth of his third child. The pressure was mounting, but rather than let it get to him, Jason embraced the challenge and made light of the tension, fashioning a bright, bubbly, entertaining type with a personality made for memorable headlines. Beautifully random FS Maja’s soft, rounded shapes and assured, fluent lines encompass lots of notable features that contribute to its warm, fun-loving personality, including: a very large x-height; a short, rounded serif to allow for close spacing and give texture to body text; a slight convexity, or bulge, in the stroke terminals; a calligraphic fluidity in the entry to the down-stroke of most lowercase letters; open, generous curves, especially in the “B”, “P” and “R”; and a “w” made of two “u”s.

Art into type In 2008, Fontsmith were approached by their friend, Jon Scott, to investigate whether a typeface could assume the aesthetic of one artist’s body of work. Jon’s not-for-profit charity, Measure, was organising an event for the artist, Conrad Shawcross, whose giant mechanical installation, entitled Chord, was going on public display in the long-disused Kingsway tram tunnel in Holborn. Chord explores the way we perceive time, as either a line or a cycle. Two enormous machines with dozens of rotating arms and moving in opposite directions, weave rope with almost infinite slowness. An unusual brief Phil Garnham visited Conrad in his Hackney studio to get a feel for his work and ideas. “Conrad is a very clever and philosophical guy. He struggled to see how typeface design had any relevance to him and his art. This was going to be a challenge.” The artist presented the type designer with a pile of rope and a huge diagram of sketches and mathematical workings. “This was, in essence, my brief.” Phil developed three concepts, the simplest of which ticked all the boxes. “The idea of the strokes in the letterforms appearing and ending at peaks or points of origin fitted perfectly with Conrad’s idea of time occurring and ending at two ends of the sculpture.” Two versions Phil planned modules for two versions of the typeface: one with five lines in the letterforms and one with seven. He then drew the modules on-screen and twisted and turned them to build the machine that is FS Conrad. “This is not a simple headline typeface,” says Phil. “It’s not a rigid structure. It has varying character widths, and it’s informed by real typographic insight and proportions so that it actually works as piece of functioning, harmonious type.”

Cosmopolitan Elegance Named after a southerly wind that blows over the Mediterranean Sea, FS Ostro breathes warmth into letterforms with their roots in colder, stark Modern typefaces. FS Ostro is a typeface imbued with balanced and sophisticated elegance. It’s discerning and sensitive, self-assured but understated. One for the well-travelled reader. Thoughtful contrast FS Ostro draws inspiration from a wide range of sources, such as 19th century British Scotch Roman designs, Italian modern style typefaces and highly contrasted display Spanish examples. Its text version offers a consistent rhythm and robust texture that is easy on the eye. This elegant, cosmopolitan typeface is characterised by its thoughtfully modulated contrasts between thick and thin, sharp angles, and sophisticated curves. Exaggerated touches in display “What is more restrained and sober in text, becomes purposefully prominent and more detailed in display,” says Fontsmith designer Alessia Mazzarella. These exaggerated details for the display version can be seen in the letter terminals, such as those in the ‘a’ and ‘g’ and the tail of the ‘Q’, as well as in the set of numerals, fractions, arrows, borders and ornaments, which can be used to build decorative framing elements. Fluid italics The less rigid and curvaceous italics of modern style typefaces were the inspiration for FS Ostro’s own subtle, flowing italic styles. The letterforms are confident and fluid, creating an overall sense of refinement and modernity.

Cute FS Kitty is the type equivalent of Bagpuss: plump, cute, cuddly and not fond of exercise. So don’t go giving it a run-out on body copy; FS Kitty is an all-caps font made for showing off in posters and headlines, and on products, point-of sale and especially sweets. Blubber Kitty had been quietly curled up in Phil Garnham’s sketchbook for a year before he brought it out to be brushed up. “It was in the mix as a basic form when I started thinking about FS Lola. It was a twisted, bubbly beauty – quite squishable and huggable. The working file was called Blubber. “At that time it was a basic construction of strokes. I created the ‘A’ first, purely as a shape to play with, not as type. I flipped it for ‘V’, and copied that for a ‘W’. I flipped the ‘W’ for an ‘M’... I thought, ‘This looks a bit wacky, but I like it,’ and just carried on. The most tricky characters were the ‘B’ ‘P’ and ‘R’. I must have drawn about 20 kinds of B for this, just to get it to fit.” Variety “When the regular weight of Kitty had been designed,” says Jason Smith, “it just felt like a natural progression to go on and explore how far we could go with it: Light, Solid, Headline, Shadow.” Phil Garnham thinks there’s still more to come. “There are some really individual characters in this font that I think have yet to be exploited: the Greek Omega symbol, the strange face in the ampersand. Like Bagpuss, Kitty has kept a low profile so far. “We know people are using Kitty. In fact, it was the first of any of our fonts that we sold on the day it was released. But I still haven’t seen it out there in the wild. It’s going to be a exciting moment.”

a, g, k and y It was a forensic examination by Jason Smith of his existing designs that laid the groundwork for FS Jack. Jason made a list of unique characteristics that would give the sans serif font its typographic thumbprint, which included an unusually large x-height and slightly off-the-wall letters like the lower-case “a”, “g”, “k” and “y”. “I wanted to make something that was slightly uncomfortable,” says Jason, “and in doing so simplify the quirkiness down to a few letters.” Fernando Mello did “the rest of the cooking”, filling the design out and making the additional weights. Tipos Latinos Upon its release in 2010, FS Jack was submitted by Fernando, who is Brazilian, for the esteemed type design biennial, Tipos Latinos, where it was selected as a winner in the Families category. It went on to be selected for type exhibitions throughout Latin America and around the world. “FS Jack is a workhorse,” says Fernando, “but also very ownable and distinctive, and available in a good range of weights, crafted by Jason and I.” Corporate “FS Jack took a couple of years to get noticed and is still fairly underused,” says Jason, “which is good in a way, for our Brandfont clients that have adopted it.” FS Jack was chosen as the signature font for The Shard in London, from its signage down to business cards. Fontsmith also worked with Lloyds Bank to customise FS Jack into a bespoke font for the bank’s updated brand identity – part of Fontsmith’s Brandfont service, which you can read about here. Fat Jack Included in the FS Jack family – just – is FS Jack Poster, the super-heavy weight of the range. “That was a last minute addition,” says Fernando, “after Jason and I started talking about how much we liked Gill KO, a typeface that is almost comically fat.”

Bauhaus Geometric, economical, functional... The good, wholesome, modernist values that once fired up the tutors and students of the Bauhaus became the inspiration for FS Dillon after an exploration of the work of the pre-war art and design powerhouse in the Fontsmith studio. The font combines simplicity and directness with a characteristic Fontsmith warmth. Letterforms are compact, with a generous x-height, and built for maximum clarity and impact. The Bauhaus sought beauty through function. FS Dillon achieves it. Made for TV The weights of fonts for TV sometimes have to be adjusted so as not to “blow” on-screen. FS Dillon was originally drawn for the on-screen presentation branding of Film Four, whose primary colour was red. Black type on a red background looks heavier than white, so Dillon needed two weights that would allow white and black type to be used together, looking balanced and equal. Type design is an organic process. Years after developing FS Dillon, we revisited it, redrawing elements and adding italics to maintain consistency. Olympic You don’t get a much higher confirmation of the functional fitness of a typeface than to have it selected to guide visitors around an Olympic complex. FS Dillon was selected as the font for signage at some of the key venues at the London 2012 Olympic Park, helping to get spectators, athletes and officials from all over the world to their seats and starting blocks on time.

New York vibes FS Irwin was born in New York while Senior Designer, Fernando Mello, was studying an intensive 5 week typeface design course at the Cooper Union. His brief was to design a perfectly clear typeface that could communicate well, without loud or overtly mannered design features. Fernando was influenced by the subway font in New York: ‘It is very in your face and clear, always in bold. It doesn’t shout much but at the same time is very present and unique. The design is completely different but it was this spirit I wanted to capture for FS Irwin.’ And the vibe of the city: ‘In a similar way to London, New York is so mixed and so cosmopolitan. I was amazed by the different styles and identities I saw there, and tried to encapsulate this essence to create something new, relevant and very now.’ Incisive quality Rather than focusing on quirks or distinctive characteristics, the key to FS Irwin is the quality of its design and spirit of simplicity. The design, proportions and details are usable and authentic and it is suitable for countless situations, without running the risk of being instantaneously noticeable. Families like this can be used on nearly anything, from more playful designs to serious corporate IDs. ‘Extensively tested and precisely drawn text-oriented typefaces are what I enjoy designing the most. There is a beauty and a different approach, a different way of making them interesting, sellable and usable rather than adding flicks or unexpected details.’ Inscriptions and calligraphy FS Irwin’s origin lies in Fernando’s studies in inscriptional lettering and writing-calligraphic exercises at the Cooper Union. Mello started the process by digitising his explorations and adapting them into a more workable sans serif structure. The traditional forms of writing which gave the basis to Latin type as we know it today were the perfect place to start. This influence can be seen in the proportion of the capitals and in slight writing-calligraphic details in the lowercase, such as the slightly angled, chiselled spurs and their open terminals.

FS Renaissance is a display stencil typeface by the Monotype Studio. A collaboration between lettering artist and designer Craig Back and Creative Type Director Pedro Arilla, the single style font explores the intersection between art and design. With artist and designer working hand in hand, each letter was crafted as a standalone piece of art, while working harmoniously together as a functioning typeface. The typeface is inspired by the Renaissance period symbolised by flourishing progress in the arts, sciences, learning, and philosophy. The typeface is not a traditional stencil design: the cuts are not rigid but interactions that are hand crafted between each element, emphasising the idea of a typeface as a piece of art or sculpture. Pedro Arilla’s aim was to take the core DNA of Craig's lettering and apply it to a typographic base with a solid internal consistency, balanced with an external elegance. Pedro and Craig worked closely together to make sure the original concept was not compromised and this is reflected in the finished design which strikes the perfect balance between functionality and art.

FS Koopman is a hard-working typeface. A crossbred workhorse that draws on inspiration from Swiss grotesks, American gothics and early British grotesques. It refuses to fit neatly into any of these categories, it’s neither one nor the other, but all of the above. It’s kinda Swiss meets American… (but with a slight Yorkshire twang).

The x factor How do you make a font like FS Albert unique, distinctive? “When designing a font I try to question every letter,” says Jason Smith, “but all you need is a few that have an x factor. With FS Albert, they’re the lowercase ‘a’ and ‘g’ and the uppercase ‘I’ and ‘J’. “I remember a friend saying, ‘Why on earth have you designed the ‘a’ like that? Isn’t it too friendly for this kind of font?’ And, in a way, that’s what I wanted – honesty and warmth, because a lot of big brands at the time really needed to show a more human side.” Range of weights and styles FS Albert is a charismatic type: a warm, friendly sans serif face with a big personality. Open, strong and amenable, and available in a wide range of weights and styles, FS Albert suits almost every task you put it to. Fontsmith has crafted five finely-tuned upright Roman weights and four italic weights, as well as a special Narrow version to provide the best coverage and give headlines and text an easy-going character. The chunky kid “FS Albert was inspired by – and named after – my son, who was a bit of a chunky kid,” says Jason Smith. “I designed an extra bold weight because I always felt that the really big font heavy weights had the most personality. “I recently told Albert this story. He laughed, and forgave me for thinking he was a fat baby. He liked the big personality bit, though.” 1000s of glyphs Not content with a character set that covered Europe and the whole of the Western world, the studio decided to go further afield. There are now FS Albert character sets that cover western and eastern European languages, including those of Russia, as well as Cyrillic, Arabic and Greek scripts. In fact, the font now covers more than 100 languages, making it ideal for bringing a consistent typographic style to the communications of global brands.

Ligatures FS Rufus is an outgoing, likable sort of font with an eccentric streak. Wide letterforms and curious ink-traps make for an engaging personality, and a set of discretionary ligatures make FS Rufus irresistible to designers wanting to play. Not a small set, either: there are some 80 different options available. Wide The decision was made early on to make the letterforms of FS Rufus luxuriously wide. This generates a distinctive visual texture when the font is used for text. With other weights available for headlines, FS Rufus brings a curiously engaging look to editorial, magazine covers and advertising. Just look at my ink traps Ink traps are normally the preserve of fonts intended for printing at small sizes, in newspapers or directories – extra notches necessary to prevent ink from pooling. FS Rufus turns the ink trap into a beautiful eccentricity, flaunting it in both its lowercase and capitals. Take a look at the “h”, “a” and “k”, and the “B” and “N”. Attention-seeking? Moi?

Pure and not-so-simple Maybe it’s the air of purity, openness and transparency that they transmit, but geometric typefaces are more popular than ever among leading brands. Based on near-perfect circles, triangles and squares, geometric letterforms look uncomplicated, even though making them readable is anything but – something the designers of the first wave of geometric fonts discovered nearly a century ago. Many of the world’s most recognisable brands in technology, retail, travel, food, manufacturing and other industries continue to be drawn to the straightforward, honest character that geometric fonts convey. Fontsmith set out in 2015 to develop a typeface in the same tradition, but optimised for the demands of modern brands – online and offline usage, readability and accessibility. And, of course, with the all-important Fontsmith x-factor built in. FS Lucas is the bold and deceptively simple result. Handle with care The letterforms of FS Lucas are round and generous, along the lines of Trajan Column lettering stripped of its serifs. But beware their thorns. Their designer, Stuart de Rozario, who also crafted the award-winning FS Millbank, wanted a contrast between spiky and soft, giving sharp apexes to the more angular letterforms, such as A, M, N, v, w and z. Among his inspirations were the colourful, geometric compositions of Frank Stella, the 1920s art deco poster designs of AM Cassandre, and the triangular cosmic element symbol, which led him to tackle the capital A first, instead of the usual H. The proportions and angles of the triangular form would set the template for many of the other characters. It was this form, and the light-scattering effects of triangular prisms, that lit the path to a name for the typeface: Lucas is derived from lux, the Latin word for light. Recommended reading Early geometric typefaces were accused of putting mathematical integrity before readability. FS Lucas achieves the trick of appearing geometric, while taking the edge off elements that make reading difficult. Perfectly circlular shapes don’t read well. The way around that is to slightly thicken the vertical strokes, and pull out the curves at the corners to compensate; the O and o of FS Lucas are optical illusions. Pointed apexes aren’t as sharp as they look; the flattened tips are an essential design feature. And distinctive details such as the open terminals of the c, e, f, g, j, r and s, and the x-height bar on the i and j, aid legibility, especially on-screen. These and many other features, the product of sketching the letterforms in the first instance by hand rather than mapping them out mechanically by computer, give FS Lucas the built-in humanity and character that make it a better, easier read all-round. Marks of distinction Unlike some of its more buttoned-up geometric bedfellows, FS Lucas can’t contain its natural personality and quirks: the flick of the foot of the l, for example, and the flattish tail on the g and j. The unusual bar on the J improves character recognition, and the G is circular, without a straight stem. There’s a touch of Fontsmith about the t, too, with the curve across the left cross section in the lighter weights, and the ampersand is one of a kind. There’s a lot to like about Lucas. With its 9 weights, perfect proportions and soft but spiky take on the classic geometric font, it’s a typeface that could light up any brand.

Antwerp On a visit to Belgium and the Netherlands while still an MA student at Reading University, Eleni Beveratou made some important discoveries. First, there was the letter ‘g’ from the Didot family seen at Plantin Moretus Museum in Antwerp, which seemed “almost like a mistake”. Then there were strange details such as the serifs on the “l”, “h”, “k”, “b” 
and “d” in Egmont Cursive and other typefaces by Sjoerk Hendrik de Roos, found in volumes of poetry she picked up from a chaotic bookshop in Amsterdam. These were characters that stood out from the text but seemed to blend harmoniously with the rest 
of the letters. “And there it was, the spark. 
I decided to design a typeface that would capture the details of the process of writing.” A guiding hand Eleni shared her initial thoughts with Phil Garnham and Jason Smith. They liked what they saw in her tentative first sketches, and gave her the chance to develop her ideas further. Phil, in particular, provided valuable input as FS Olivia took shape. Eleni’s main influence – the handwritten – would give the font its character. “When creating a typeface,” says Eleni, “it’s fair to say that it reflects some of the designer’s personality. And that’s certainly the case with 
FS Olivia. “Although technology is part of my everyday life. I am a great admirer of traditional graphic design where you can touch and feel paper and ink.” Irregular “What I particularly like,” says Eleni, “is that a printed item can develop its own personality sometimes as a result of imperfections in the print. “FS Olivia has some of 
these characteristics as it’s inspired by handwriting, 
and yet it also includes some 
very modern features.” Feminine and fascinating, FS Olivia captures the expressive twists and turns of (the poet’s?) pen on paper, with low junctions, 
deep top serifs and semi-rounded edges. Round outstrokes contrast with 
the rough corners of the instroke, while strong diagonals and inclined serifs create a richly textured pattern. Polytonic It’s only fitting that there should be a version of this poetic font for one of the birthplaces of poetry and song. Eleni, who hails from Athens, developed an extensive range of glyphs that could be used for the Greek language, in both modern and ancient texts. For the latter, there is a version of Olivia for displaying polytonic Greek (a system that utilises a range of accents and “breathings”), which brings the 21st century technology of OpenType to the presentation of poetic texts from Ancient Greece. Just think what Homer could have done with that.

Stone and steel FS Benjamin is a flared serif typeface designed by Stuart de Rozario. Consisting of 12 styles ranging from Light, Book, Regular, Medium, SemiBold and Bold with Italics it has clear, delicate letterforms, punctuated with brutal chiselled angles. With a pure and crafted feel to the forms the typeface has traditional roots but has been designed to work in a contemporary setting. Archetypal proportions in terms of x-height to cap height and ascender to descender ratio, allow the typeface to feel familiar and be legible in all platforms. Delicate brutalism Inspired by the contrasts of London and named after Big Ben, FS Benjamin was designed by Stuart de Rozario and founder, Jason Smith. Walking around London Jason was inspired by the juxtaposition of the old and the new. Glass and steel architecture can often be found amongst traditional signage and coats of arms seen around the City. These surroundings sparked an idea to create a modern design based on an alphabet that would traditionally be carved from stone. “Much of the typography we see today is so similar. I thought what if we created a typeface with traditional roots but modernised it to sit amongst the punk and noise of the streets of London? Old with new. Business with busyness. This is what London is all about.” Jason Smith

Bookish A little bit bookish, but quietly elegant and well-proportioned, FS Sally is a graceful font family. It’s a refreshingly uncomplicated design that brings sophistication to text and display type, and a distinctive aplomb to both large and small volumes of text. Hidden talents There’s more to FS Sally than meets the eye. Choose Standard for the Latin alphabet or Pro if you work with Cyrillic and Greek typography. There’s a large range of special features, including elegant small caps and a set of discretionary ligatures to add a traditional flavour to figures and fraction sets. Rhythmic There’s a rhythm and flow to FS Sally – the result of the classic but asymmetric design of its serifed feet and shoulders. The inward curve of the serif at the shoulder and the outward curve at the foot subliminally guide the eye through each letterform, and the flicked feet of the “a”, “d” and “u” add an extra kick of energy to the rhythm. The italic forms have their own flow, too, with a pen-like fluency that retains the formal discipline required for a text type. Regular to heavy FS Sally’s five weights, all with italics, cover every kind of print application. The regular weight is elegant in display and an easy read in longer texts. A subtle step up from the regular is the medium, which was created to deliver a stronger colour and finish in poorer printing conditions. The semibold offers a strong alternative to the regular at smaller sizes, and its intermediate feel suits it to sub-headings, title pages and calmer designs. The bold works excellently in book and title headings, and FS Sally Heavy lends weight and punch to poster headlines and logotypes.

Born in the 70s Personal influences are unavoidable in type design and usually find their way through into finished fonts. At Fontsmith, one period in particular provides inspiration, according to FS Pimlico designer, Fernando Mello. “Jason and Phil have always known that I’m very into the visual language of the 70s. I know that Jason shares my love of the 70s and Phil will sometimes admit to being a fan, too. I think that’s the reason they were both so supportive in the development of this font. “And, of course, we all share an interest in good-humoured and intelligent design. We like to think it’s a Fontsmith characteristic.” Back from black FS Pimlico started in an unusual place: with a tubby, penguin-like lowercase “a” that Fernando Mello had been sketching. From “a” grew the rest of the alphabet – a bubbly, fat, friendly family with a brush-written quality that became FS Pimlico Black. The black weight certainly isn’t the normal starting point for creating a regular and bold weight, but Fernando pressed on, driven by a glut of influences: brush-writing; Letraset and early digital systems catalogues; the type of Herb Lubalin and Tony di Spigna; 70s clothes and vinyl; and 70s revival disco nights in London’s Pimlico and Vauxhall. Natural or flourished Not often do fonts come along that seem to span the ages. FS Pimlico is at home in an office environment providing a fresh clear identity in communications or providing text that’s clear and easy to read. But it likes to party, too, 70s style. With the OpenType features switched on, a designer can totally change the look of their work, and create point-of-sale, headlines and titles that stand out and get noticed.