Illuminating Letters

Welcome to Illuminating Letters - a series of newsletters about the most significant and enduring typeface families. All issues of Illuminating Letters can be downloaded as a print-friendly PDF. If you would like us to shed some light on your favorite typeface, please send a note to allan.haley@fonts.com, and we’ll consider it for our growing list of future topics for Illuminating Letters.

Optima(PDF)
With humble beginnings as quick sketches on an Italian bank note, Hermann Zapf refined the design that was to become the Optima® typeface into an elegant and powerful communication tool. The process of getting from rough drawings to fonts of type took years – but it was clearly time well-invested.

Bodoni (PDF)
The Bodoni type style is not an all-purpose workhorse. It is, rather, a high-strung thoroughbred. Most interpretations are exceptionally handsome designs that perform best within a narrow range of functions, but in these they performs like few others can.

Franklin Gothic (PDF)
Although it has taken more than 100 years, what began life as a single-weight typeface is evolving into a very large – and exceptionally useful – typeface family, Franklin Gothic.

Garamond (PDF)
Garamond typefaces, in both their American and European flavors, are generally considered ideal book faces. The design is also an excellent choice for most other forms of continuous text. Magazines, newsletters, annual reports, lengthy advertising copy – for example – are all naturals for the Garamond design. Elegance, warmth, readability and legibility are guaranteed.

Garamond (PDF)
Garamond typefaces, in both their American and European flavors, are generally considered ideal book faces. The design is also an excellent choice for most other forms of continuous text. Magazines, newsletters, annual reports, lengthy advertising copy – for example – are all naturals for the Garamond design. Elegance, warmth, readability and legibility are guaranteed.