Text typefaces for demanding editorial work need to possess special qualities: excellent readability, italics and small caps for all weights, multiple figure sets (lining, oldstyle, table) and ample language coverage. In this section of the newsletter you’ll find releases that meet these standards. If you are a web designer considering using any of these typefaces as a web font for body text, test thoroughly!

The Winco family was inspired by a style of lettering that was common in British, Dutch and German book covers of the 1950s and 1960s. Their designers produced hand-lettered lettershapes that could be labelled ‘glyphic’ or ‘incise’, i.e. referring to letters cut into stone (think Optima or Pascal). Having studied this work, as well as expressive printing types from German and Czech traditions, Ramiro Espinoza designed Winco from scratch, which allowed him to create an original, typographically consistent and versatile family in five weights. Winco successfully combines the legibility and seriousness of a text face with the dynamism, expressiveness and subtle irreverence of the original hand-rendered alphabets. While not cheap in single weights, the Winco family is quite affordable right now, thanks to a 50% discount (until May 20, 2012).

With Bulo (Catalan for “hoax”), designer Jordi Embodas offers a sans-serif font with a straightforward yet elegant design. The construction of its characters combines a mechanical logic with some humanist flavors, especially in the lowercase roman and italics. Designed for press, Bulo’s generous x-height, short ascenders and shallow descenders combine with slightly condensed proportions, resulting in a highly legible text face that saves a lot of space, both horizontally and vertically. Bulo can be used in all levels of the information hierarchy on the page, with a strong presence in headlines or subheads, while comfortable and transparent in text sizes.

A Text Family of the Month with just two weights, and an italic for the Regular weight only? — you must think we’ve lost it. Well, we haven’t. Sometimes that is all you need, and when the font in question is as charming and seductive as Vulpa, then you might even invent a project especially for it. Vaguely based on the proportions of Plantin, Vulpa successfully combines expressive, whimsical details with a basic structure that makes for perfect readability at text sizes. The OpenType features make Vulpa capable of demanding typographic work; both the regular and bold weights include small caps, while the italic features swash capitals for most letters. All styles include standard ligatures, automatic fractions, proportional and tabular, lining and oldstyle figures. Also check out the Ornament and Drop-Cap fonts.

If you like this typeface from Mostardesign, check out some of their other fonts:

Introduced in August 2011, Laura Worthington’s Samantha Script was already a massive script family, with over 1,100 alternate and swash letters that, among other goodies, featured ascenders and descenders that vary in length and complexity, lively discretionary ligatures, 60 ornaments and 45 catchwords.

Now, with the introduction of the brand new Bold and Bold Italic weights, the versatility of the Samantha Script is multiplied. The new weights are more powerful, and especially useful for occasions where extra emphasis is needed, or when the tastiness of a product needs to be underlined by equally creamy lettershapes. In both weights, the expanded Samantha Script is a gorgeous and very usable connected script in two distinct styles (Upright and Italic), with measured rhythm and contrasting strokes. Samantha possesses a smooth elegance with the ability to take on many appearances, from simple styling to fancy exuberance. A detailed user’s guide PDF is available in the font’s Gallery.

—Dominik, Croatia, April 11, 2011

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