Most font super families have their roots buried deep in typographic history, some dating back hundreds of years. Although the name Tekton is ancient - it means "builder" in Greek - the Tekton™ font is the exception to the rule. David Siegel based his 1989 design on the hand lettering of author and architect Francis D.K. Ching.

Intended as a typeface for use by architects, it quickly became popular with a non-architectural audience as well.The uniqueness of Tekton's design stems from samples of Ching's handwriting using a technical pen, including the characteristic ink blobs at each end of the strokes. Proportions and lettershapes were given uniformity, though the original character of Ching's lettering was carefully maintained.

This casual yet graceful handwriting design works equally well for both professional and personal use. With an exceptionally legible design at all weights, Tekton's usefulness cannot be understated. With the 2007 introduction of Tekton Pro, which included an expanded character set and additional kerning pairs, Tekton has cemented a spot for itself among font super families.

The Tekton font family owes much of its success since its inception to the fact that it is one of the most readable typefaces of all time. Superb legibility makes Tekton a top choice for a variety of applications, from informal correspondence to displays, engineering and architectural drawings, and more. Tekton is perfect for architectural design/drawing software, to lend pages an informal, handwritten feel, or to match the feel of the type with the designer’s plans. Tekton multiple master, which was released on 1993, has enhanced the usefulness of the Tekton’s typeface design with the addition of width and weight axes. This made the Tekton font family more usable for display and signage work, among other applications.