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.

Palatino Sans is available at www.linotype.com

SOFTMACHINE

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

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