Apud is a text typeface with a difference. It is narrower than most, and could almost be a condensed version of a regular-width roman. But it is not: designer Dino dos Santos conceived Apud as a family in its own right. It is surprisingly lucid and readable, even at small point sizes, so using Apud as a text face can result in some serious space-saving. Another nifty feature: each glyph has a constant width across the four weights of the family, so the weights can be changed at any time during the design process without having to reflow the text.

Apud’s serifs are simple and dynamic: wedge-shaped and short on the left, rectangular and somewhat longer on the right. They contribute to the clean, contemporary look and confident feel of the family. Equipped with small caps and multiple figure sets, Apud is a typographically sophisticated family suited for a wide array of publications. For elegant headlines, combine with Apud Display, a stylish and subtle variation on the same formal principles.

For decades, Mike Parker has been fascinated by the story of the world’s most famous oldstyle, Times (New) Roman. Was it indeed art-directed by Stanley Morison and drawn by The Times’ Victor Lardent? Parker discovered another possible model, designed by the colorful William Starling Burgess. Parker found Burgess’ original superior to the famous newsface — and Starling is his tribute to this nameless predecessor. SInce it was presented as our Text Face of the Month in the March newsletter, Starling has done remarkably well. It is a great alternative for one of the world’s most overused text typefaces, has gorgeous italics and a striking Ultra Black headline set, so the success is well-deserved.

If you like this typeface from the Font Bureau, check out some of their other fonts:

Canada Type’s popular font collection is already being used extensively in both mainstream and underground comic books, from Crucifix in the many varieties of X-Men comics, Chalice and Hamlet in Elseworlds books, to Chopper, Driver Gothic and Gamer in plenty of others.

This month’s sponsored font collection is their comic book lettering series, which includes a variety of fonts made specifically for filling those speech balloons and thought-containers in comic books. Collector Comic is a mix of Silver- and Bronze-Age lettering in its uppercase slots, and a Modern-Age spin on them in the lowercase cells. Captain Comic is loosely based on the lettering found in the very first Star Trek comics (1967-1970). Caper Comic is made of letters that aim for clarity and readability at both text and display sizes. And Classic Comic uses the ergonomic tilt and wider aperture found in older comic book lettering on both sides of the Atlantic. All four families come in regular and bold, with italic counterparts for each. They are very affordable, and when you buy the entire collection, there’s a family discount on top of that.

— Janet S, March 11th 2010

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