PALATINO SANS
Palatino Sans is the latest typeface from the esteemed master of typeface design Hermann Zapf. Although the
new design has distinct ties to Zapf’s classic roman faces of the same name, it also has roots in some of his calligraphy
from the early 1970s. Zapf’s new design is different from traditional sans serif faces that tend to have visually
monotone strokes and constructed shapes; Palatino Sans is made up of curved, obviously hand-drawn letters.
The design is free-flowing, without sharp edges. And what should we expect? The man is, after all, a calligrapher.
Typical of all the Palatino alphabets, Zapf’s new sans has
the open letter P and almost-square capitals. To this, he has
added a curved lowercase l that is supposed to be more legible.
With so many examples of this new version of the letter
l finding its way into typeface designs, one could wonder if
we are witnessing a true evolution of our alphabet. I’m thinking
it’s just another fad that will go the way of Gigapets and
Texas Hold ’Em poker.
Palatino Sans Regular and its companion, Informal, share basic design proportions, but the Informal takes on
more of a written form, with more distinctive and, at times, more fanciful shapes. Palatino Sans Informal is more
spontaneous than the Regular design—and calls more attention to itself. If Palatino Sans Regular were Armani,
then Palatino Informal would be FUBU. The family is available in five weights with complementary italics, in
two styles of Regular and Informal.
Which brings us to the rating. Since Palatino Sans is from
Hermann Zapf, it’s pretty much assured to be a superior
design. If it’s from Zapf it also has to be worth at least 60
points. And so it is. But we’re not looking at the next Garamond—or even Zapfino.
Rating: 62 pt.
THE TEXT ABOVE IS EXCERPTED FROM ALPHABET STORIES: A CHRONICLE OF TECHNICAL
DEVELOPMENTS BY HERMANN ZAPF.
Palatino Sans is available at www.linotype.com
SOFTMACHINE
SOFTMACHINE REGULAR 42 POINT
Softmachine has just been released from ShinnType. According
to its announcement brochure, the typeface “is an OpenType font
designed to automatically facilitate an outline stroke that is even
in thickness and smoothly curved—avoiding hot spots and pointy
artifacts. It does this by the shape, spacing and kerning of letters,
and by using the ‘contextual alternates’ feature to control adjacent
glyph combinations.” Translation: Softmachine uses OpenType to
create a good outline font.
Or as Nick Shinn, the typeface’s
designer, expresses it, “When normal
fonts are outlined in applications
like InDesign, QuarkXPress
or Illustrator, the effect often produces
pointy artifacts and doublingup
of the outline. Softmachine uses
OpenType to smooth out those
kinks.” Of course, this begs the
question of why anyone would want
to use an electronically generated,
outlined typeface over the handdrawn
variety.
Shinn’s design is a friendly, rounded sans serif face of bold
weight, with a large x-height—a Pillsbury Doughboy kind of
design. In old style tradition, its ascenders are taller than its capitals.
Although it is a single font, not a family, Softmachine has two
variants. The base design is a true sans, and OpenType enables the
replacement of several characters with a serif design. And, yes, the
lowercase l with the curved base is also part of the character repertoire.
Rating: 36 pt.
Softmachine is scheduled to be available from various distributors, including Faces,
FontHaus, Fonts.com, FontShop, FontWorks, Phil’s Fonts, MyFonts, Veer, etc.
ITC KLOEGIRL
(TOP): ITC KLOEGIRL LOTUS REGULAR 18 POINT; (BOTTOM): ITC KLOEGIRL NEW YORK REGULAR 18 PT
ITC Kloegirl is based on the handwriting of Australian fashion
designer Chloé Papazahariakis, and was developed as a two-design
typeface family by Scott Carslake. It is a design distinct from any
other. Does this make it good? Put it this way: Kloegirl answers
the question that no one asked.
Kloegirl Lotus and Kloegirl New York are both patterned
after Ms. Papazahariakis’ handwriting. Carslake was first exposed
to her penmanship when she commissioned his studio, Voice, to
design the identity for her line of fashions. After seeing several
notes from her, Carslake claims that he was convinced that a typeface
should be developed from her distinctive handwriting. Maybe
he should have spent more time with the identity program and less
reading Ms. Papazahariakis’ notes.
“In examining Ms. Papazahariakis’ handwriting, I identified up to four possible styles and many distinctive characteristics
that have made the final typefaces unique,” Carslake recalls. The
end result of Carslake’s study is Kloegirl Lotus, named after Ms.
Papazahariakis’ line of fashions, and Kloegirl New York.
Kloegirl Lotus is an all-lowercase typeface with a series of
alternate characters in cap positions. Of the two designs, this
is the more successful. It reads reasonably well and is not overly
fussy. It does, however, lack a suite of capital letters—something
that comes in handy if copy happens to be a sentence or contain
proper nouns.
Kloegirl New York has capital letters, but they are spiky and
awkward, as is the lowercase they support. Kloegirl New York is
an aggressive design, like the graffit found on its namesake’s subway
cars and buildings.
In the long history of fonts, they have never been less expensive
than they are today. ITC Kloegirl, however, may still be overpriced.
Rating: 24 pt.
ITC Kloegirl is available at www.itcfonts.com
SOHO
Soho is a new type family from British designer Sebastian Lester. The family consists of nine weights and five
widths, adding up to 45 fonts. Yes, it’s a very big family.
Why so many versions? Says Lester, “Slab serifs have been
very popular in the last four to five years, yet there are few
multi-width slab serifs with fundamentally modern aesthetics
to choose from. Since slab serifs are often used in headlines,
it makes sense to have a variety of widths and weights so that
even the most demanding of designers can find the correct
weight and width for their needs.” Apparently, it was Lester’s
goal to build the Univers of slab serif typefaces.
There is something inherently solid and reliable-looking about a good slab serif. It’s not surprising they’re
enjoying a renaissance. Like most slab serifs, Soho looks best in its heftier weights. They will create headlines and
display copy that draw attention and command respect. Except for the Thin, which is quite distinctive, the light
designs lack authority in display sizes and are a little too self-conscious to work well in more than a few lines of
text copy.
But apparently it was not Lester’s goal to create the next
big text face. “As a type designer,” he says, “I’m preoccupied
with finding ways in which I can address modern problems
and create fonts that work efficiently in demanding corporate
and publishing environments.” Aha! Soho is 45 weights of a
branding font.
Rating: 48 pt.
Soho is available at www.faces.co.uk
Ratings Key
72 point: We’re looking at the next Garamond
60 point: Very good, but not Hermann Zapf
48 point: Rock-solid design tool
36 point: Worth the ticket price
24 point: Wait for it to be bundled with 500 other fonts for $29
12 point: Garamond would roll over in his grave
6 point: OK, who trained the chimp to use FontLab?
Dr. Hermann Püterschein is the president of the Society of
Calligraphers and a noted typeface and typographic critic.
He can be reached at HermannPuter@gmail.com
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