Slab: Humanist

FF Olsen is a robust typeface made for small text sizes. The design merges both sans and serif models, combining the best of each for maximum stamina on the page. Up close, its Roman is almost a slab design, with firm wedge serifs not unlike those of Gerard Unger’s Swift. Such sturdy construction guards against the harshest environments. The italics follow a semi-serif structure. Before... Read More

There is something straight-forward and no-nonsense about slab serifed typefaces. Calligraphic designs, on the other hand, evoke a sense of humanity and immediacy ¿ even intimacy. ITC Napoleone Slab combines both slab serif and calligraphic design traits into a single typeface design. Heady stuff. The result is unlike almost any other slab serif typeface.According to designer Silvio Napoleone,... Read More

Xavier Dupré’s FF Absara is a work of French proportions, but its shapes take influence from the Dutch style: less polished, and more direct. Its casualness refers to humanist written forms. FF Absara’s rough cut makes it interesting at display sizes, but thanks to its generous x-height and firm serifs, FF Absara works equally well setting text. The typeface’s idiosyncratic italic creates a... Read More

Chaparral is the work of type designer Carol Twombly and combines the legibility of slab serif designs popularized in the 19th century with the grace of 16th century roman book lettering. The result is a versatile, hybrid slab-serif design. Unlike "geometric" slab serif designs, Chaparral has varying letter proportions that give it an accessible and friendly appearance in all weights from light... Read More

Chaparral is the work of type designer Carol Twombly and combines the legibility of slab serif designs popularized in the 19th century with the grace of 16th century roman book lettering. The result is a versatile, hybrid slab-serif design. Unlike "geometric" slab serif designs, Chaparral has varying letter proportions that give it an accessible and friendly appearance in all weights from light... Read More

FF Avance’s most notable characteristic is its use of asymmetrical serifs in the upright styles, something normally seen only in italics. Uppercase as well as lowercase letters have serifs in the upper left and lower right corners, vestiges as it were of the connection to earlier, handwritten letters. Evert Bloemsma’s focus on contemporary design made it difficult for him initially to consider... Read More

Amasis is a slab serif design which has been drawn with a humanist approach, rather than the traditional geometric construction associated with this style of letter. The result is a typeface that has an affinity with the Ionics, although in character it belongs to the latter decades of the twentieth century. The Amasis italic fonts, rather than being sloped roman or cursive in nature, are... Read More

When ITC Officina was first released in 1990, as a paired family of serif and sans serif faces in two weights with italics, it was intended as a workhorse typeface for business correspondence. But the typeface proved popular in many more areas than correspondence. Erik Spiekermann, ITC Officina's designer: "Once ITC Officina got picked up by the trendsetters to denote 'coolness,' it had lost... Read More

When Christian Schwartz and Erik Spiekermann were working on FF Meta Serif, they had plans to also expand the FF Unit family (a closely related design) to include FF Unit Slab. They figured that it would be nice to create a serif and slab that could be used together, as well as with their own sans counterparts. While FF Meta Serif featured a more classical structure, FF Unit Slab was shaping up... Read More

Soho is the latest addition to the growing range of typefaces from Sebastian Lester. This grand opus of a project resulted in a typeface that comprises nine weights and five widths of precision engineered OpenType. 40 fonts, 32,668 characters and 24 OpenType features.Hot on the heels of the popular Neo Sans and Neo Tech range, and his first typeface release Scene, Soho represents three years of... Read More