Reduction to the essentials is the design formula employed throughout the whole of the Xenois™ family. Although conventional letter forms are retained,elements that are not absolutely indispensable to facilitate reading flow have been removed. The treatment of the spurs found on the stems of many lower case letters is a characteristic example of this approach. The elimination of these spurs has no effect on quality of legibility while,on the other hand,it gives the letters a very distinctive and characteristic primary form on which Erik Faulhaber has rung the changes in the various Xenois styles. The font has an objective feel as a result of this simplification but is provided with more vitality through the use of rounded punctuation marks. The superb legibility of the clear-cut characters is enhanced by a generous x-height and open counters that are also retained in the bold variants.
Every style of Xenois is available in the five weights Light,Regular,Medium,Bold and Heavy. Faulhaber has succeeded in maintaining the precise coordination of stroke weight,contrast,internal spaces and character width within each style and has,at the same time,ensured that stroke weight is harmonised across all the styles. Xenois thus represents a font microcosm within which the various styles can be seamlessly combined with each other.