The Vtg Stencil fonts from astype are based on real world stencils from several countries. The Italian stencils that I chose as a model for this font are roughly based on classic French stencil letters. Please compare the figures (numbers) with their French counterparts. However, the Italian stencils are made with a different production technique. The design of the letters is clearly not punch-cut into the plates, maybe they are drilled, milled or etched. Details such as the serifs look bold and clumsy, and when using the stencils as they are meant, with viscous sign paint, smaller details easily fade away. So I took my freedom to design a font close to the original design but adding several typographic tweaks to let it shine, hoping to get closer to the intended design idea of these Italian stencils. Enjoy the vintage!

Guillaume is a small family of text fonts with its roots in the French sixteenth century. The roman is based on the types of Guillaume Le Bé (c.1525–1598), and the italic on those of Claude Garamont (Garamond) (d. 1561). Garamont’s romans have inspired countless modern interpretations, but his italics, despite their merit, have attracted much less attention. Guillaume offers extensive support for European languages, and is best suited for use in applications that support OpenType. Among its OpenType features are ligatures, small caps, several sets of numerals, contextual alternates, intelligent implementation of long ‘s’ and other period features, and fractions. For more detail, please see the pdf available in the Gallery.