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LUC DEVROYE


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Best typefaces of 2020



[The best typefaces of 2020, the year of the virus, selected by Luc. Cartoon by Ralph Steadman (2003) in his zoology series.]





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The best commercial typefaces of 2020: Luc's selection

This is my own selection of the best commercial typefaces published in 2020, grouped by category. The list will grow until December 31, 2020.
Text typefaces:
  • Arco (Jongbeom Kim at Rojotype). A modernization of the Venetian style of Bembo and Adobe Jenson.
  • Alkes (2020, by Plamen Motev, Nikolay Petroussenko, Kaja Slojewska at Fontfabric).
  • Laica (Alessio D'Ellena and the Dinamo team, including Franziska Weitgruber).
  • Sherborne (Nick Cooke).
  • Quieta (Maria Chiara Fantini, Italian Type).
  • Chamberi (Iñigo Jerez and Francisco Torres, Extratype).
Sans typefaces:
Rounded sans typefaces:
Type systems:
  • EB Mensch (Eko Bimantara). A sturdy humanist sans / slab serif pairing.
  • GT Alpina (Reto Moser at Grillytype). A workhorse serif typeface family with 70 styles, and more than average contrast. Plus a three-axis variable font (weight, width, display).
Art deco typefaces:
Hipster typefaces:
Script typefaces:
Calligraphic typefaces:
Brush typefaces:
Sketched, Layered or Poster typefaces:
  • Kalkal (Gunjan Panchal).
  • Tectonica. A decorative didone by Rodrigo López Fuentes, in Poster, Engraved and Swash styles. The Engraved, in particular, is quite striking.
Blackletter typefaces:
Dingbats, icons and ornaments:
Programming fonts:
Garalde typefaces:
  • Romaine (Aad van Dommelen at Fontwerk). A 4-style revival of Robert Granjon's Ascendonica from 1570.
  • Frenchute (Josep Patau).
Display typefaces:
Slab serif typefaces:
  • Egitto (Jeremie Hornus and Solenn Bordeau).
Copperplate:
Wood type revivals:
  • Compagnie (Ellmer Stefan).
  • Tocco (Thiago Bellotti).
  • Khao Sans (Ekaluck Peanpanawate). Based on old newspaper headline type from Thailand.
  • Podium Soft (Mateusz Machalski). Based on old Polish wood types.
Letterpress emulation:
Didone typefaces:
    LI class="clear"> Foundry Tiento (David Quay).
  • Apothicaire (Alejandro Paul). In the frivolous and mischievous didone genre.
  • Kellar (Alex Chavot).
  • Isambard (Paul Barnes, Tim Ripper, Miguel Reyes). In the fat face genre.
  • Fatface (James Edmondson, Oh No Type).
  • CAL Bodoni Ferrara Origin (Dave Lawrence). Not a didone, but instead a careful reproduction of an early original display serif typeface family by Bodoni.
Fashion mag typefaces:
  • Segol (Moshik Nadav). A stunning 24,000 glyphs in an orgy of swirls and seductive curves.
  • Gyoza (Studio Aurora).
  • Erotique (Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini, Maria Chiara Fantini and Solenn Bordeau at Zetafonts) and Erotique Sans (Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini and Maria Chiara Fantini). In the evil serif genre.
  • Stravinsky (Ilya Naumoff).
  • Blacker Sans Pro (Francesco Canovaro, Andrea Tartarelli).
  • Sopran (Krista Likar).
Revivals:
  • Poltawski Nowy (Mateusz Machalski, Borys Kosmynka and Ania Wielunska at Capitalics). A revival of the first original Polish typeface, Adam Poltawski's Antykwa Poltawskiego (1928-1931).
  • 1812 (by Viktor Kharyk and Konstantin Golovchenko). A 14-style revival and extension of the antique money font 1812 of St. Peterberg's Lehmann Foundry.
  • Etrusco Now (Cosimo Pancini and Mario De Libero at Italian Type). A revival and extension of Nebiolo's Etrusco.
  • Ghitta Bodoni Cancellaresca (Spurnej Type Foundry). A revival of a chancery typeface from Bodoni's Manuale Tipografico (1818). The typeface family is named after Bodoni's widow, widow Margherita (Ghitta) Dall'Aglio who published that 1818 edition of Manuale Tipografico.
  • LD Genzsch Antiqua (Michael Wörgötter). A revival of Nordische Antiqua (1906-1910).
  • Rudolf Text (Lucas Franco and Claudio Rocha). Not really a revival, but rather an enlightened outgrowth of Koch Antiqua (1922).
  • If (Jerome Knebusch and Constantin Pfeiffer). Not really a revival of Renner's Futura Fett (1928), but rather a hypothetical "what if" exploration.
  • Mon Nicolette (Cristobal Henestrosa and Oscar Yañez at Sudtipos). A revival of Dwiggins's unfinished typeface Charter.
  • Dossier (Toshi Omagari). A revival of unfinished typewriter typefaces by William Dwiggins.
  • Nouveau LX Stencil and Nouveau LX (Ricardo Santos). Based on Hermann Hoffmann's Herold (1913, Berthold), but with a different capital R.
  • Selectric (Alexander Bobrov). A 1315-glyph Latin/Cyrillic revival of the famous golfball typeface IBM Selectric.
  • Spirits (Alfonso Garcia at Latinotype). After Hermann Ihlenburg's Schoeffer Old Style (1897).
Stencil typefaces:
Variable fonts:
  • Gimlet XRay (David Jonathan Ross).
  • Varianz (Viktor Zumegen).
  • Acta Var (Dino dos Santos).
  • PF Spekk (Panos Vassiliou). A simple versatile geometric sans for Latin, Greek and Cyrillic.
  • GT Flexa (Dominic Huber and Marc Kappeler at Grilli Type).
  • Antarctica (Newglyph).
Multilingual typefaces:
Color fonts:
  • Boldini (Lauritta Ivanova). An art deco sans accompanied by a color SVG font that plays with transparency and gradients.
  • Konga (Yai Salinas).
Wonderful, adorable, refreshing typefaces:
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The best free typefaces of 2020: Luc's selection

This is my own selection of the best free typefaces published in 2020, grouped by category. The list will grow until December 31, 2020.
Text typefaces:
  • Literata (Type Together). Specially designed for screen, it comes in 48 styles and has a variable option. A major redesign of an earlier font at Type Together by José Scaglione, Veronika Burian, Irene Vlachou, and Vera Evstafieva.
  • Castoro (John Hudson, Paul Hanslow and Kaja Slojewska).
  • Maragsa (John David Maza).
  • ETbb (Michael Sharpe). Based on XETBook (2019, Daniel Benjamin Miller), which in turn expands Tufte's ET Bembo, a delicious text font for use in serious documents, course notes, and modern typesetting.
Sans typefaces:
Rounded sans typefaces:
Type systems:
Art deco typefaces:
Hipster typefaces:
Script typefaces:
Calligraphic typefaces:
Brush typefaces:
Sketched, Layered or Poster typefaces:
Blackletter typefaces:
Dingbats and ornaments:
Programming fonts:
  • JetBrains Mono (Philipp Nurullin and Konstantin Bulenkov). A carefully designed programming font family for Latin and Cyrillic.
Superfamily:
  • Kyiv Type (Dmitry Rastvortsev). Icons by Olya Kiselova.
Garalde typefaces:
Display typefaces:
  • Bogart (Francesco Canovaro and Andrea Tartarelli). A Cooper Black or Windsor-genre commercial family, with two free styles, SemiBold and LightItalic.
  • Sprat (Ethan Nakache).
  • Apologue (Phillip Block).
  • Quarantype is a free family of ten crazy display fonts made in March 2020 under COVID quarantine by the prolific and talented Zetafonts team.
Slab serif typefaces:
  • Besley 2.0 (Owen Earl). A revival and extension of Clarendon.
Copperplate:
Wood type revivals:
Letterpress emulation:
Didone typefaces:
  • Rondal (Daler Mukhiddinov).
  • Bodoni (Owen Earl, Indestructible Type). Developed between 2015 and 2020, this mega-family covers optical sizes 6, 11, 16, 24, 36, 48, 72, and 96, and has a variable font as well.
Fashion mag typefaces:
Revivals:
  • Engraving CC (2020, Owen Earl). After Robert Wiebking's Engravers Roman (1899). It includes the money font Engraving Shaded CC.
  • SYN Nova (Mateusz Machalski and Wojciech Freudenreich at Borutta). A revival of an earlier De Stijl alphabet by Freudenreich.
Stencil typefaces:
Variable fonts:
Multilingual typefaces:
Color fonts:
Wonderful, adorable, refreshing typefaces:
[Google] [More]  ⦿