It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that these letter shapes are familiar. They have the unmistakable color and weight of Cooper Black, Oswald Cooper's most famous typeface from 1921. What should be a surprise is that these letters are actually from George Auriol's Robur Noir (or Robur Black), published in France circa 1909 by the Peignot foundry as a bolder, solid counterpart to its popular Auriol typeface (1901). This face precedes Cooper Black by a dozen of years and a whole Great War. Cooper Black has always been a bit of a strange typographical apparition to anyone who tried to explain its original purpose, instant popularity in the 1920s, and major revival in the late 1960s. BB&S and Oswald Cooper PR aside, it is quite evident that the majority of Cooper Black's forms did not evolve from Cooper Old Style, as its originators claimed. And the claim that it collected various Art Nouveau elements is of course too ambiguous to be questioned. But when compared with Robur Noir, the "elements" in question can hardly be debated. The chronology of this "machine age" ad face in metal is amusing and stands as somewhat of a general index of post-Great War global industrial competition: - 1901: Peignot releases Auriol, based on the handwriting of George Auriol (the "quintessential Art Nouveau designer," according to Steven Heller and Louise Fili), and it becomes very popular. - 1909-1912: Peignot releases the Robur family of faces. The eight styles released are Robur Noir and its italic, a condensed version called Robur Noir Allongée (Elongated) and its italic, an outline version called Clair De Lune and its condensed/elongated, a lined/striped version called Robur Tigre, and its condensed/elongated counterpart. - 1914 to 1918: World War One uses up economies on both sides of the Atlantic, claims Georges Peignot with a bullet to the forehead, and non-war industry stalls for 4 years. - 1921: BB&S releases Cooper Black with a lot of hype to hungry publishing, manufacturing and advertising industries. - 1924: Robert Middleton releases Ludlow Black. - 1924: The Stevens Shanks foundry, the British successor to the Figgins legacy, releases its own exact copies of Robur Noir and Robur Noir Allongée, alongside a lined version called Royal Lining. - 1925: Oswald Cooper releases his Cooper Black Condensed, with similar math to Robur Noir Allongée (20% reduction in width and vectical stroke). - 1925: Monotype releases Frederick Goudy's Goudy Heavy, an "answer to Cooper Black". Type historians gravely note it as the "teacher steals from his student" scandal. Goudy Heavy Condensed follows a few years later. - 1928: Linotype releases Chauncey Griffith's Pabst Extra Bold. The condensed counterpart is released in 1931. When type production technologies changed and it was time to retool the old faces for the Typositor age, Cooper Black was a frontrunning candidate, while Robur Noir was all but erased from history. This was mostly due to its commercial revival by flourishing and media-driven music and advertising industries. By the late 1960s variations and spinoffs of Cooper Black were in every typesetting catalog. In the early- to mid-1970s, VGC, wanting to capitalize on the Art Nouveau onslaught, published an uncredited exact copy of Robur Black under the name Skylark. But that also went with the dust of history and PR when digital tech came around, and Cooper Black was once again a prime retooling candidate. The "old fellows stole all of our best ideas" indeed. So almost a hundred years after its initial fizz, Robur is here in digital form, to reclaim its rightful position as the inspiration for, and the best alternative to, Cooper Black. Given that its forms date back to the turn of the century, a time when foundry output had a closer relationship to calligraphic and humanist craft, its shapes are truer to brush strokes and much more idiosyncratic than Cooper Black in their totality's construct. Robur and Robur Italic come in all popular font formats. Language support includes Western, Central and Eastern European character sets, as well as Baltic, Esperanto, Maltese, Turkish, and Celtic/Welsh languages. A range of complementary f-ligatures and a few alternates letters are included within the fonts.

Matthew Carter has been refining his design for Alisal for so long, he says, that when he was asked to complete the design for the Monotype Library, it was almost as if he were doing a historical revival of his own typeface. The illusion even extended to changes in his work process: although he now does all his preliminary and final drawing on screen, the first trial renderings of Alisal were done as pencil renderings. Alisal is best classified as an Italian old style design. Originally created between the late 15th and mid-16th centuries in northern Italy, the true Italian old styles were some of the first roman types. They tend to be the most calligraphic of serifed faces, with the axis of their curved strokes inclined to the left, as if drawn with a flat-tipped pen or brush. These designs offer sturdy, free-flowing and heavily bracketed serifs, short descenders, and a modest contrast in stroke weight. Alisal has nearly all the classic Italian old style character traits, plus a few quirks of its own. It is calligraphic in nature, with more of a pen-drawn quality than faces like Palatino or Goudy Old Style. It is more rough-hewn than either Goudy's Kennerley or Benton's Cloister, and is generally heavier in weight than most of the other Italian old style designs. One place where Alisal makes a clean break with traditional old style designs is in the serifs. While sturdy and clearly reflecting pen-drawn strokes, Alisal's serifs have no bracketing and appear to be straight strokes crossing the main vertical. Like Caslon or Trajanus, Alisal is a handsome design when viewed as a block of copy. Ascenders are tall and elegant, and serve as a counterpoint to the robust strength of the rest of the design. Alisal is available as a small family of roman and bold with a complementary italic for the basic roman weight, providing all that is needed for the majority of text typography. Alisal is not as well-known as some of Carter's other typefaces, but this lovely and long-incubated design was certainly worth the wait.

Pekin is an unusual design with an oriental flavor. It was originally designed by Ernst Lauschke and released by The Great Western Type Foundry of Chicago as “Dormer,” which is similar to the French verb ‘to sleep,’ not exactly a marketing triumph. Barnhart Bros. And Spindler (independently-operated subsidiary of ATF since 1911) bought Great Western in 1918. According to McGrew, AMERICAN METAL TYPEFACES of the TWENTIETH CENTURY, BB&S renamed the typeface prior printing their 1925 specimen book — guess they wanted something just a tad more exciting. Quirky, distinctive and fun. Pekin ML represents a major extension of the original release, with the following changes: 1. Added 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 415 glyphs (compared to 218 glyphs in the original release). 2. 652 Kerning Pairs. Note: Ag, Aj and gj will cross unless kerned. Alternative A may also be used. 3. Added OpenType GSUB layout features: onum, salt, liga, dlig, hist, ornm and kern. 4. Revised vertical metrics for improved cross-platform line spacing. 5. Refined various glyph outlines, based on improved scans. 6. Added set of Tabular Numbers at cap height, based on original design; added Old-Style Numbers based on default design. 7. Added a bunch of alternative characters: 18 upper case letters, 10 lower case letters, 1 ampersand and 1 bullet. The alternate c is actually the original design, but I don't like it - easily confused with e. Alt E H M h m n r t are from the original design. I added the rest. 8. 7 Ligatures, 4 Ornaments, 18 Geometric Shapes, 6 Arrows and 12 Misc. Symbols. The zip package includes two versions of the font at no extra charge. There is an OTF version which is in Open PS (Post Script Type 1) format and a TTF version which is in Open TT (True Type)format. Use whichever works best for your applications.

C.P. Company is a group of types including 4 different forms and it is a complementary sign of communication for the C.P. Company clothes maker. C.P. Company communication makes use of media such as the press and the web and that’s the reason why we have always felt the need for a font that would not show incongruities through the monitor. Therefore we have decided to change the structure of glyphs like a, e, g, s… in the most contrasted versions to prevent the serifs from touching the internal parts of the letters and in this manner we have made a really unusual stylistic choice for a group of types. The difference between the height of caps and smalls is very low (about 20%) so that the smalls are easy to read even when their dimensions are on a very small scale. Moreover this stylistic solution gives the possibility to avoid using the small capitals in case of charts and catalogue codes (i.e. Tricot M5) and provides more vertical compactness between the lines. Even a sentence written in capital letters next to another one written in smalls does not look so much contrasted from a typographical point of view and then it is not unpleasant. The limits due to different constructive principles have been overcome by means of a grid based on the automatic division of EM square of 9-point type and in this manner the letters have a wider face. The font is even more unusual owing to the style chosen that belongs to the classical tradition of hair-lined types for glyphs like e and also thanks to ligatures like ? in the characters set. CP Company is a geometrical font whose alphabet makes use of the style of types that preceded the Helvetica, matched with more experimental and updated solutions. Numbering is monospaced. The bending of number 2, the slight raising of the oblique serif of number 4 and the presence of a hair-line in number 7 are the solutions adopted to make the types match in a more balanced manner.

FF Infra™ is a fresh take on the robust sans serif typefaces of the early 20th century. Drawn by Gabriel Richter, it’s a friendly, inviting – and multi-talented family. Whether long blocks of editorial text, or snackable copy in web pages and blog posts, FF Infra’s 20 typefaces are easy on the eyes in both print and digital environments. The design also performs as well at petite sizes, as it does at supersized display settings. Pair FF Infra with an old style or Didone serif design and you’ll have powerful and distinctive typographic pages! FF Infra is available in 10 weights, ranging from a delicate light to a commanding black, each with an italic companion. OpenType® Pro fonts of FF infra have an extended character set supporting most Central European and many Eastern European languages, in addition to providing for the automatic insertion of ligatures and fractions. Each font also contains four sets of figures and a bevy of arrows that are ideal for wayfinding and similar info-graphic projects. A generous lowercase x-height, open counters and subtle graduations between family weights, make for a family that is at home in a wide range of sizes, and comfortable in everything from large signage, content for mobile apps, product manuals and full-scale branding projects. In addition, to provide design diversity, Richter drew alternate designs for the a, G and ß. Richter first became interested in fonts and the art of creating typefaces while studying communication design at Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences. His first designs were experimental, but these lead a position at FontShop International in 2013, where he developed his typeface design skills. A strong background in font production, hinting and font marketing were also part of his FontShop experience. Richter worked as freelance graphic and type designer until he founded übertype in 2017. He also invests back into the type community through the type design courses he teaches at his alma mater. FF Infra is Richter’s first commercial design for Monotype. We’re sure that you’ll find it as versatile and powerful as we do.

SIAS opens a new chapter in Irish vernacular typography: the Andron-2-Irish font family. The genes of the insular typographic heritage have been blended with the timeless classical style of the versatile Andron series. Whereas most Irish-style fonts available more or less stick to ancient designs, Andron-2-EIR is different: it’s an entirely new design in which Irishness meets the beauty of a matured Venetian Roman text face. Envision a new horizon for setting Irish text in its own visual mode! Now you can utilize Italics, Semibold and Small capitals for Irish just as you have been doing in other languages for a long time. But the icing on the cake is the fifth font: Andron Irish Middlecase honours the rich medieval tradition of Ireland by a special uncial-style glyph set. It corresponds to the Andron MC series. Last but not least the Irish type connoisseur will relish this font package for it’s unique utilization of Opentype functionality. In Opentype-aware applications, by just ticking a box you can switch to the special insular forms of s and r. By ticking another box you can transform the text from modern-day orthography to the traditional spelling with lenited consonants. This built-in intelligence has never been implemented in any Irish font before. Briefly, the Opentype substitution features are: [Ligatures] – default basic f-ligatures; [Descretionary Ligatures] – more ligatures for typographic reason, mainly t- and long-s-combinations; [Style set 1] – turns all lowercase r and s into their insular glyph variants; [Style set 2] – replaces all consonant-h digraphs by dotted consonants (ḃċḋḟġṁṗṡẛṫ, ḂĊḊḞĠṀṖṠṪ), works for lowercase, uppercase and upper-lowercase alike; [Style set 3] – provides another range of additional special ligatures (for Regular and Italic only); [Oldstyle figures] – turns the default lining figures into proportional oldstyle figures. Andron Irish will also perfectly combine with every other Andron product in mixed settings. For an overview please go to the SIAS main page. For a quick reference go to Andron Latin, Andron Greek, Andron English or Andron MC. For more wonderful new Irish fonts look at Hibernica and Ardagh!

Guided tour available here. Port Vintage is a new typeface expanded upon the original Port typeface, released in 2013, and being an experimental Didone typeface with a modern twist, inspired by the well known forms of typography masters such as Bodoni and Didot and the exuberance and elegance of calligraphy typefaces. A lot of changes were made, the whole typeface is now softer and has less rough edges, the time it took to mature made it possible to achieve an entirelly new and distinct flavour from the original Port, giving away the rough edges from Port and giving place to the soft transitions and curved connections between the stems and serifs of Port Vintage. Port Vintage melts the straight lines and strong contrasts of the Didone typefaces with the elegant lines of calligraphy in a geometric way, resulting in exuberant characters with geometric swashes that can be combined in countless ways. The result of this experiment is Port Vintage, an unique and rich display typeface meant to be used on big sizes and it’s main perk is the amount of alternative characters it features. Port Vintage is Open-Type programmed and includes hundreds of alternates, from swashes to titling alternates, ligatures and stylistic sets with each character having a thin version of itself, giving complete freedom to all your creative needs. Port Vintage is available in 10 different styles: Port Vintage Regular, being the base version and featuring the whole base character set; Port Vintage Regular Decorated, featuring richer forms and containing more ornamentated and more extravagant characters; Port Vintage Medium and Port Vintage Medium Decorated, designed for the occasions you need a bit more thickness and the decoration variants: Port Vintage Ornaments, containing a wide set of elements meant for the creation of fillets, vignettes and fleurons, resulting in an almost infinite number of possible combinations to embellish your designs and Port Vintage Words, a set of some of the most common words used in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese. All styles, except Port Vintage Ornaments and Port Vintage Words, include italic styles. For a better understanding of all the uses of Port Vintage and the full character list the reading of the manual is recommended.

Juan Bruce’s Noort is not a type family for wayfinding or mapmaking alone, but for clarifying information and engaging readers along their own journey. The information designer’s role is to bring clarity and style to overwhelming amounts of information, which fortunately is Noort’s purpose as well. Hierarchies submit to its will and layering colour only adds more presence to its active posture. Noort’s design uses the proven editorial text features of a large x-height, ample spacing, and low contrast to check all the boxes for paragraph text use. But it’s the long serifs, wide characters, and overall typographic presence that make it resilient and ease the task of reading in small point sizes. These details mean Noort is able to demonstrate importance not only with its five pitch-perfect weights, but with its brindled colour within a layout. Noort’s roman and italic styles play off each other by transplanting their design features. The roman style’s serifs are transferred in substance but expectedly increased in speed in the italic styles. And the italic’s inktraps and separated strokes are echoed amidst the roman’s upright structure. Where digitisation could have removed the influence of the hand, Noort retains the analogue nature of its creation. This antiphonal seeding of details creates a cohesive family that is as fascinating as it is functional. Noort’s axis and serifs have a slightly varying ductus — the directional flow that aids reading and character clarity. Its latent obviousness in text sizes immediately becomes its signature style when bumped up to subhead sizes. And since Noort’s counters are so wide and welcoming, its heavier weights can expand more within themselves than along their exterior edges. Noort’s ten total fonts cover the Latin A Extended glyph set to bring its unbordered, globetrotting sensibilities to your projects. OpenType features include ligatures, fractions, and several figure styles, along with mature-rather-than-overbearing swashes. Aligned with TypeTogether’s commitment to produce high-quality type for the global market, the complete Noort family can set digital and printed works with ease, capitalising on the dual needs of clear information and fascinating textual artistry.

Noad Sans is an experimental sans serif typeface with a strong character and some very unique visual features. At the core of Noad Sans is a sturdy sans serif with closed apertures and fairly simple letterforms. The defining feature of Noad Sans, however, is its visualised nodes: all control points of Bézier curves in each of the fonts in the family are intentionally visualised. The effect of this feature is largely defined by the usage: in titles and larger bodies of text, the visualised nodes stand out and create a rhythmic pattern of their own. In smaller sizes, the sans serif base of the font becomes more prominent and the nodes create a visual fuzz. Noad Sans comes in 6 styles and as a Variable Font with two axes–Optical Size and Slant. The size of each node can be changed from the smallest (Mini and Mini Italic) to the largest (Extra and Extra Italic). Variable Font technology allows you to fine tune the size of the nodes and the slant angle, so that your version of Noad Sans can be truly unique. Noad Sans has a large character set of 570+ glyphs, covering the vast majority of Latin based languages. In addition to that there are dozens of special characters, punctuation, numbers, and symbols. Noad Sans is equipped with a number of useful OpenType features, such as Case-Sensitive Punctuation, Stylistic Alternates, Ligatures, Fractions and many more. Noad Sans began as an experimental project, and during its development the spirit of experimentation was at the heart of the project. Thanks to the unique nature of the typeface, it can feel at home in a variety of settings: from web development, graphic and product design to more novel uses like 3D and NFTs. Noad Sans type family includes 6 static fonts (Mini, Mini Italic, Regular, Regular Italic, Extra and Extra Italic) and one variable font. Each style can be purchased separately. There is a free trial version of Noad Sans that can be downloaded free of charge on MyFonts. For more information on the typeface, feel free to download Noad Sans PDF Specimen.

Carnero™ is a feisty hybrid of precise geometry and calligraphic flair; a design that walks that fine line between being sensible and a standout. In an increasingly monotone typographic landscape – Carnero has a unique pulse that moves the reader along with a new energy. Carnero gives life to simple utility with kinetic letter shapes, open apertures, and generous counters Drawn by Steve Matteson for the Monotype Studio, Carnero’s versatility is its strength. From digital ads and applications to packaging and branding, Carnero is comfortable and contemporary. The lightest and boldest weights create inviting headlines, while the middle weights read well for body copy. Used together, they build a lively brand and a clear hierarchy. Matteson infused Carnero with a modernist exterior resting on a 10th century calligraphic foundation. Delightful flourishes on the capital R and K, and lowercase a, k and l, give the design a distinctive demeanor; while the alternate italic swash caps are a saucy nod to the scribes. The result is a design that is warm, approachable – and a bit lighthearted. Matteson describes Carnero as, “transcending the static posture of the geometric sans genre.” The Carnero family is a compact collection of six distinct weights, ranging from an engaging light to an authoritative black, each with an italic counterpart. Its extended Latin character set ensures worry-free localization for eastern/western European languages. This is a design that will prove its value many times over. Matteson has drawn over 80 distinctive typeface families for major corporations, branding firms and retail sales. His passions for the outdoors and performing music balances an intense focus on work – and subtly finds its way into typefaces like Carnero. Matteson has designed custom fonts for three generations of the Microsoft Xbox® game console, the original core fonts for the Android® mobile-phone platform, in addition to branding typefaces for Toyota®, Rocket Mortgage®, and Google®. He also drew the Kootenay™ family, Monotype’s proprietary branding typeface. Matteson’s retail designs range from the elegant and utilitarian Open Serif™ (a companion to Google’s Open Sans), to a growing series of Frederic Goudy revivals. Carnero Variables are font files which are featuring one axis and have a preset instance from Light to Black.

Oktah Neue is an extended version of a more limited Oktah family. Since its release in 2019, Oktah Neue received two major updates, the most recent in June 2022. The latest version of Oktah Neue is comes in 22 styles as well as one variable font. Oktah Neue inherits the best traits of Oktah—great legibility, simple geometric letters shapes, low contrast across all styles—but also introduces what Oktah fell short of: extensive language support and enhanced OpenType features. While working on Oktah Neue, we strove to create a neutral typeface that would be a workhorse for designers, typographers and other font users alike. Building onto the familiar shapes of Oktah, we tried to make them more neutral, at the same time preserving the unique character of the typeface. Certain characters remained the same, others have undergone a complete transformation, which left them better tailored for the wide implementation range of Oktah Neue. Over the past years the size of the character set in Oktah Neue was significantly expanded (currently standing at 2500+ characters). In addition to Extended Latin, new language systems (Extended Cyrillic, Greek — both Basic and Polytonic — and Hebrew) were introduced. The already vast Cyrillic set also includes localised forms for such languages as Bulgarian, Serbian and many others. Oktah Neue is OpenType friendly: it knows how to do alternatives, contextual alternatives, switch various between stylistic sets and adjust the height of punctuation and symbols as you type. Small Caps include all listed languages as well as numerals and symbols. Oktah Neue comes equipped with various styles of numerals — from standard Proportional Lining figures to Oldstyle, Tabular Oldstyle. Sub- and Superscript, Fractions and two sets of circled numbers. Oktah Neue is well-kerned with more than 3000 kerning pairs and automatically hinted. Oktah Neue comes in 22 styles (11 uprights and 11 italics), two of which — Ultra Light and Black Italic — can be downloaded free of charge to get a firsthand experience of what Oktah Neue is ready to offer. The latest update of Oktah Neue introduced a fully variable option: now, both axes (Slant and Weight) can be accessed in the same file for utmost convenience.

Carnero™ is a feisty hybrid of precise geometry and calligraphic flair; a design that walks that fine line between being sensible and a standout. In an increasingly monotone typographic landscape – Carnero has a unique pulse that moves the reader along with a new energy. Carnero gives life to simple utility with kinetic letter shapes, open apertures, and generous counters. Drawn by Steve Matteson for the Monotype Studio, Carnero’s versatility is its strength. From digital ads and applications to packaging and branding, Carnero is comfortable and contemporary. The lightest and boldest weights create inviting headlines, while the middle weights read well for body copy. Used together, they build a lively brand and a clear hierarchy. Matteson infused Carnero with a modernist exterior resting on a 10th century calligraphic foundation. Delightful flourishes on the capital R and K, and lowercase a, k and l, give the design a distinctive demeanor; while the alternate italic swash caps are a saucy nod to the scribes. The result is a design that is warm, approachable – and a bit lighthearted. Matteson describes Carnero as, “transcending the static posture of the geometric sans genre.” The Carnero family is a compact collection of six distinct weights, ranging from an engaging light to an authoritative black, each with an italic counterpart. Its extended Latin character set ensures worry-free localization for eastern/western European languages. This is a design that will prove its value many times over. Matteson has drawn over 80 distinctive typeface families for major corporations, branding firms and retail sales. His passions for the outdoors and performing music balances an intense focus on work – and subtly finds its way into typefaces like Carnero. Matteson has designed custom fonts for three generations of the Microsoft Xbox® game console, the original core fonts for the Android® mobile-phone platform, in addition to branding typefaces for Toyota®, Rocket Mortgage®, and Google®. He also drew the Kootenay™ family, Monotype’s proprietary branding typeface. Matteson’s retail designs range from the elegant and utilitarian Open Serif™ (a companion to Google’s Open Sans), to a growing series of Frederic Goudy revivals. Carnero Variables are font files which are featuring one axis and have a preset instance from Light to Black.

JT Collect is a hybrid sans-serif typeface for the 21st century that takes a playful approach to the type design heritages of Germany and Switzerland. Confidently built on a geometric structure and infused with elements from traditional grotesque typefaces, it hits the sweet spot between geo and grot. I developed JT Collect purely digitally, drawing from years of experience with analog type design. The letters aren’t based on one particular source but seek to merge different type genres from the first half of the 20th century and lift them to a contemporary quality level. JT Collect is less reserved than strictly geometric designs and brings some industrial workmanship and honesty into the game. The six weights plus three optical sizes of JT Collect offer what you need to make an impact. While cool and elegant in the Light weight, the fonts show more presence on the page as they grow bolder. To this end, I drew the letterforms with a slightly unrefined, brawny air in the bolder weights. This sets them apart from the perceived purity of more geometric designs. The Book weight is ideal for short texts and medium-length copy, and the forceful Bold makes wordmarks look crisp and lets headlines radiate cosmopolitan self-confidence. JT Collect is suitable as a primary typeface for branding, advertising, packaging, stationery, posters, documents, and websites from trades and industries as diverse as food & fashion, media & makers, culture & creators, games & gems, sports & startups. Use JT Collect for film titles or watch faces, for leaflets or store signs, for business cards or billboards: this font family is as adaptable as a chameleon (and like a chameleon, it’s never boring). Try it in different contexts. You won’t be disappointed. Its adaptability also makes JT Collect a great starting point for poised and persuasive font combinations. Even a sans/sans pairing is possible due to hybrid nature of JT Collect—something that’d be hard to achieve with most other sans-serif typefaces on the market. You can add to it a heavy slab from the OGJ library, like Temper Wide. You might go for a geometric or a grotesque typeface as secondary (text) typeface. Or you could set your body copy in a classic serif typeface such as Caslon, Sabon, or Plantin. That’s right: JT Collect is a true team player. Whether you need a grotesque or a geometric sans: try JT Collect. You can get the best of both worlds.

In the late 1930s, old Egyptiennes (or Italiennes) returned to the collective consciousness of European printers and type houses — perhaps because political news were front a centre, especially in France where Le Figaro newspaper was seeing record circulation numbers. In 1939 both Monotype and Lettergieterij Amsterdam thought of the same idea: Make a new typeface similar to the reverse stress slab shapes that make up the titles of newspapers like Le Figaro and Le Frondeur. Both foundries intended to call their new type Figaro. Monotype finished theirs first, so they ended up with the name, and their type was already published when Stefan Schlesinger finished his take for the Amsterdam foundry. Schlesinger’s type was renamed Hidalgo (Spanish for a lower nobleman, ‘son of something’) and published in 1940 as ‘a very happy variation on an old motif’. Although it wasn’t a commercial success at the time, it was well received and considered subtler and more refined than the similar types available, Figaro and Playbill. In the Second World War, the Germans banned the use of the type, and Hidalgo never really recovered. Upon closer inspection, Schlesinger’s work on Hidalgo was much more Euro-sophisticated and ahead of its time than the too-wooden cut of Figaro and the thick tightness of Playbill. It has a modern high contrast, a squarer skeleton, contour cuts that work similarly outside and inside, and airy and minimal solutions to the more complicated shapes like G, K, M, N, Q and W. It is also much more aware of, and more accommodating to, the picket-fence effect the thick top slabs create in setting. Basilio (named after the signing teacher in Mozart’s Figaro) is the digital revival and major expansion of Hidalgo. With nearly 600 glyphs, it boasts Pan-European language support (most Latin languages, as well as Cyrillic and Greek), and a few OpenType tricks that gel it all together to make a very useful design tool. Stefan Schlesigner was born in Vienna in 1896. He moved to the Netherlands in 1925, where he worked for Van Houten’s chocolate, Metz department store, printing firm Trio and many other clients. He died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz in 1944. Digital revivals and expansions of two of his other designs, Minuet and Serena, have also been published by Canada Type.

Coming Together contains over 400 glyphs and is supplied as a single, cross-platform OpenType font. All glyphs are accessible using OpenType-savvy applications, Unicode-savvy utilities, the Character Map utility on Windows, and FontBook on Mac OS X. Nearly 400 designers contributed to “Coming Together”: Adam Humphries, Aditi Dilip, Adrien Midzic, Afraa Gutub, Al Insan Lashley, Alan Lima Coutinho, Alaric Garnier, Alejandro Cabrera Avila, Alejandro Lo Celso, Alejandro Paul, Alessandro Segalini, Alex Cameron, Alex Coblentz, Alexander Trubin, Alexandre Freitas, Alexey Murashko, Alicia Jabin, Aline Horta, Allison Dominguez, Amanda Postle, Amy Brown, Amy Papaelias, Anderson Maschio, Andrea Emery, Andres Perez, Andrew Boardman, Andrew Jesernig, Andrey Furlan, Andrij Shevchenko, Ann Tripepi, Antonio Gutierrez, Antony Kitson, Anushree Kapoor, Anya Cam, AP303 Estudio Design, Becky Krohe, Beejay, Ben Mitchell, Benjamin K. Shown, Benjamin Varin, Brad McNally, Brad Nelson, Bradley Trinnaman, Brady Baltezore, Brandon Horne, Breck Campbell, Brian J. Bonislawsky, Brian Jaramillo, Brian Jongseong Park, Brian Mueller, Brock French, Bruce Rodgers, Bruno Pugens, Bryan Angelo Lim, Buro Reng, Caitlin Martin-Frost, Calou, Carlos Fabián Camargo Guerrero, Carlos Vidal, Cayo Navarro, Cesar Puertas, Chank Diesel, Charles Williams, Chris Lozos, Chris Trude, Christophe Badani, Christy Lai, Claes Källarsson, Claire Coullon, Claudio Piccinini, Colby Cook, Craig Eliason, Cristina Pegnataro, Curve Doctor, Dan DiSorbo, Dan Liggins, Dan Rubin, Daniel Justi, Daniele Capo, Dav(id Hubner), Dave Bailey, Dave Cohen, David Jonathan Ross, David Sudweeks, David Thometz, Dawn Mercurio, Delve Withrington, Diana van de Blaak, Didier Mazellier, Diederik Corvers, Dino Santos, Dmytro Pobiedash, Donald Beekman, Dries Wiewauters, Duncan Bancroft, Ed Hoskin, Eddy Ymeri, Edineide Oliveira, Eduardo Manso, Eduardo Rodríguez Tunni, Eero Antturi, Eli Castellanos, Elias Bitencourt, Elias Stenalt Werner, Elman Padilla, Emery Miller, Emily Leong, Emily Maher, Enrico Limcaco, Eric Frisino, Eric Stine, Erik Brandt, Espen, Evan Moss, Evangeline Rupert, Fabiane Lima, Fabio Foncati, Fabrizio Schiavi, Farbod Kokabi, Felipe Lekich, Francisco Martin, Frank Riccio, Frans van Bellen, Gary Holmes, Gautam Rao, Gayle Hendricks, Gene Buban, Georg Herold-Wildfellner, George Aytoun, Gerd Wiescher, Giles Edwards, Gist Studio, Glen Barry, Glenn Parsons, Goro Mihok, Grace Engels, Grant Alexander, Grant Hutchinson, Greg Smith, Gunnar Swanson, Gustavo Machado, Hans Nieuwstraten, Harold Lohner, Hilary Salmon, Hillary Fayle, Hrant H Papazian, Hugo Gallipoli, Ian Drolet, Ian Lynam, Ilona Kincses, Isac Corrêa Rodrigues, Ivette Chacon, Ivo Federspiel, Jacques Le Bailly, Jae-hyoung Choi, Jaime Vasquez, James Edmondson, James Grieshaber, James L. Stirling, James Lukens-Gable, James Martin, James Ockelford, James Puckett, Jarbas Gomes, Jarett Knuth, Jason Adam, Jason Robinson, Javier Suzuki, Jay Chu, Jayson Zaleski, Jean Francois Porchez, Jeff Fisher, Jeff Jarvis, Jeffrey Vanlerberghe, Jelmar Geertsma, Jennifer Clarke, Jennifer Rutherford, Jens Kutilek, Jerry Allen Rose, Jess Latham, Jesse Ragan, Jessica Page, Jesvin Yeo Puay Hwa, Jim Ford, Jim Lyles, Jim Rimmer, Jin Ping, Jo De Baerdemaeker, Joachim Muller-Lance, Joanna Abbott Moss, Joe Francis, Joe VanDerBos, Joel Vilas Boas (J85), John Downer, John Flanagan, John Foley, John Langdon, John Lopez, John Lyttle, John Skelton, Johnny Dib, Jonathan Hughes, Jonathan Pierini, Jos Buivenga, Jose Luis Coyotl Mixcoatl, Juan Acosta, Judd Crush, Judith Lee, Julie Johnson, Julie Oakley, Julie Thomas, Juliet Shen, Jumin Lee, Jurgen Weltin, Justin Callahan, Justin Chodzko, Karel Piska, Karen MacKay, Karin Eberhardt, Karin van Soest, Karla Perez, Katie Parry, Katie Snape, Katri Haycock, Katy Brooks, Kelley Garrard, Kelly Redling, Kent Lew, Kevin D’Souza, Kevin J. Boynton, Kevin McDermott, Kim Arispe, Kokin, Kristen Caston, Kristen Hartman, Kristian Möller, Kristians Šics, Kyle Jones, L Bollinger, Lan Huang, Larry Van Dyke, Laura Ricker, Laura Worthington, Laurel Wilson, LeAndrea James, Lijklema Design, Linda McNeil, Lise Barreto, Louie Crumbley, Louis Duchesne, Luke Dorny, Luke Stouffer, Madison Cramer, Måns Björkman, Marc Salinas Claret, Marcus Leis Allion, Marcus Parker, Marcus Sterz, Marie-Anne Verougstraete, Mark Simonson, Martin Majoor, Matheus Barbosa, Mathias Forslund, Matt Desmond, Matt McInerney, Matt Millette, Matthew Jerauld, Max Kisman, Michael Browers, Michael Bundscherer, Michael Cina, Michael Doret, Michael G. Adkins, Michael Hernan, Michael Paul Young, Michael Wallner, Miguel Catopodis, Mikael Engblom, Mike Jarboe, Mike Petschek, Miriam Martincic, Moira Sheehan, Monica Pedrique, Nacho Gallego, Naomi Atkinson, Natanael Gama, Nathanael Ng, Neil Fox, Neil Patel, Neil Summerour, Neil Woodyatt, Ngoc Ngo, Nguyen Pham, Nicholas Curtis, Nicole Hudson, Nicole Sowinski, Nicolien van der Keur, Nina Stössinger, Noah Scalin, Ojasvi Mohanty, Oleg Macujev, Olivia Choi, Ong Fang Zheng, Pata Macedo, Patrick Gallagher, Patrycja Zywert, Paul Hunt, Paul Langman, Pedro Moura, Pedro Paz, Per Ohlsson, PJ Onori, Premm Design Ltd, Rae Kaiser, Rafael Carozzi, Rafael Cordeiro, Rafael Neder, Randy Jones, Ray Larabie, Raymond Forbes, Ressa McCray, Ricardo Esteves, Ricardo Martins, Riccardo Sartori, Richard Kegler, Richard Miller, Rob Keller, Roballo, Rose Coplon, Roy Rub, Rudo van der Velden, Russell McGorman, Ryan Rushing, Ryan Thorpe, Sander Neijnens, Sara Cross, Scott Boms, Scott Fisk, Sergio Jimenez, Shi-Min Chin, Sílvio Gabriel Spannenberg, Soohyen Park, Sorin Bechira, Stanley Friesesk, Stefan Hattenbach, Stefan Kjartansson, Stephen Lay, Steve Harrison, Steve Marsh, Steve Matteson, Steve Mehallo, Steve Zelle, Steven Bonner, Steven Wulf, Stuart Brown, Stuart Ford, Stuart Sandler, Sue Zafarana, Sulekha Rajkumar, Susan Surface, Tanya T Stroh, Taylor Loman, Ted Ullrich, Teja Ideja, Tena Letica, Terrance Weinzierl, Theo França, Thiago Martins, Tiffany Wardle, Tim Whalen, Titus Nemeth, Tom Plate, Tom Rickner, Tomato Košir, Tomi Haaparanta, Travis Kochel, Troy Leinster, Tyler Heron, Type Mafia, Vanessa Robertson, Veronika Burian, Victor Esteves, Victor Zuniga, Viktor Nübel, Viviana G, Wellinton Reis, Wilson Thomas, Wolfgang Homola, Xavier Dupre, Xerxes Irani, Zvika Rosenberg These designers represented the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Croatia, Czech Republic, El Salvador, England, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lebanon, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Siberia, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Ukraine, United States, Venezuela, Vietnam