Like a good dinner party, you’ll want to pair your typeface with a complimentary and maybe even a little contrasting personality. You may very well go with Garalde, an old style serif. The stroke max widths and larger x-heights are similar to many Grotesques but the serifs are different enough to add some distinction. Also, because they’re even older, drawn by skilled trade craftsman hundreds of years ago, they add the elegance of a Dutch Golden Age painting. If you really want your brand or digital experience to appear sophisticated, make this your primary face.
Old Style serifs:
- Designed during the 16th and 17th centuries
- Especially in France
- More upright letters and horizontal crossbars
- Low contrast between thick and thin strokes
- Bracketed serifs
Example fonts:
- Arno (Adobe Type)
- Arnhem (Our Type)
- Baskerville (Mergenthaler Linotype Company, Deberny & Peignot)
- Galaxie Copernicus (Constellation, Village)
- Plantin (Monotype Imaging)
Eventually these Grotesque and Garalde’s will run their course and we’ll move on to the next typographic style du jour. Until then we’re gonna be hanging with these quirky characters for a while. Could be worse, could be your weird uncle, Eurostile.
