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We’re not calling for a return to “the good old days”, but there are some things the early type founders got just right. In the era of metal and wood type, fonts were designed specifically for the size at which they were to be used, with subtle variations in weight, contrast, and proportion to make them as legible at 6pt as they were beautiful at 72pt.

With the dawn of scalable digital type, any font could be used at any size, and the time honored mastering process was abandoned. As a result, many designs suffer in this new age of convenience: display fonts are often too ornate or fragile at small sizes; text fonts are clunky and dull when set large.

Fortunately, recent type design has learned from the past, and we are now seeing a return to the practice of optical size mastering. A few type families offer sturdy, readable cuts for text, and showy titling styles for the big stuff – modern technology infused with the wisdom of the originals.

Learn more about Optical Sizes in FontBooklet No. 2 »