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Favorite Underused Fonts

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Last edited September 06, 2017

FontShop supports typographic diversity. There will always be a place for classic type in contemporary design, and it’s safe and easy to rely on the same old standards, but using type that is underused is often the best way to stand out in an increasingly crowded and homogeneous design landscape.

With that in mind, we hope to lift the curtain on a few of the many interesting, usable, well-made typefaces beyond those standbys we all know and love. In addition to our staff recommended alternatives to common fonts, we’re asking our Twitter followers for the typefaces they wish they would see more often. Here are the results.

safety
zygapophysis
Tether even a roasted chicken

FF Tisa designed by Mitja Miklav quickly became a new-millennium favorite of graphic designers, in print as well as on the web. Its large x-height and sturdy, well-spaced forms aid its legibility at text sizes, while its low stroke contrast and range of weights allow it to successfully function at larger sizes as well. Since the designer considered wayfinding systems a potential use for the... Read More

replay
wunderkinder
Don’t drink a car under alcohol

Rudolph Ruzicka designed his font Fairfield as a legible text font. His philosophy: "The reader expects optical assistance with reading. He does not want to be distracted while interpreting and understanding the ideas of a text." Fairfield font is based on the forms of Venecian Old Face fonts as well as on the designs and details of Art Deco, giving the font a distinctive appearance

always
bureaucratic
Please do not sit on crocodile

Developed over a ten year period, FF Balance is an experimental sans serif that subverts the conventions of the style. Its horizontal strokes are heavier than the verticals and its top strokes appear slightly heavier than the bottom. Another unusual feature is the family’s uniwidth metrics. All weights and numerals of the family... Read More

vortex
zygapophysis
Even fools are right sometimes

FF Kievit explores the synthesis of the sans serif form to the structure and proportions of a traditional Renaissance Roman such as Garamond or Granjon. Work began on the typeface in 1995 when Mike Abbink was a student at Art Center in California. The family spans nine weights and includes small caps, true italics, and multiple figure sets – everything necessary for creating sophisticated... Read More

always
abstractions
Laundry obtained rapidly one hour

Viktor Solt-Bittner began FF Danubia with a study of typefaces from the 18th century. He experimented with the typical elements of neoclassical type – like the abrupt changes in contrast from hairlines to thicker strokes – developing them further, and redrawing them. At times, he departed from these models, for example while defining the basic italic forms. The lower case letters s, v, w, and x... Read More

jungle
zygapophysis
Slippery chicken hot pot young

Morris Sans is a newly revised and extended version of a small geometric family of typefaces originally produced by Morris Fuller Benton in 1930 for ATF. His initial design consisted of an alphabet of squared capital letters with a unique twist that characterized its appearance: corners with rounded exteriors and right-angle interiors. The types were intended for use in the fine print found on... Read More

brandy
hypothenuses
Don’t treat me like a potato

The seventeenth century Dutch old faces have a distinct character of their own, and were the source for eighteenth century English type designs, such as Caslon. Christoffel van Dijck was one of the great Dutch typefounders, although this face, which bears his name, may not have been cut by him, it is nevertheless representative of the best designs from that period. The Van Dijck italic, for... Read More

vortex
conceptional
Beware the hobby that eats

The Burin family of typefaces consists of Roman and Sans variations. Burin Roman has very distinct lowercase characters b, c, d, g and y with a quirky use of tapered strokes and hairlines. Burin Sans is a light display face with an extended tail on the lowercase y.

safety
microphysics
All children have brain damage

FF Bau is a large workhorse family of sans serif typefaces drawn in the “Grotesk” genre. Christian Schwartz is its designer, working under the inspiration of Grotesk types cast by the Schelter & Giesecke foundry in Leipzig. Schelter & Giesecke sold these popular Grotesks for many decades; they were first introduced around 1880. When the Bauhaus moved nearby in Dessau in the mid-1920s, these... Read More

vortex
enthusiastic
Careful tiny grass is dreaming

“Legato” is a musical term, meaning that the notes are played in a “connected” manner. This idea of connecting discrete units to enhance overall expression can be applied to the letters setting a text in precisely the same way. In designing FF Legato, Evert Bloemsma studied the extent to which the characters of the alphabet visually connect and build proper word and line images, then setting... Read More

chalet
ultraviolets
Hell with the dog, beware of wife

ITC Mendoza is a serif typeface with old style characteristics. A generous x-height and a lack of contrast between thick and thin strokes, gives the ITC Mendoza Roman font family good legibility and provides a sturdiness which enables the face to withstand low resolution output and less than ideal printing conditions. It is ideal for continuous text use, particularly in small point sizes.

grapes
ultraviolets
Beware the hobby that eats

The spark behind the creation FF Hydra family came from observing 19th and early 20th century French poster lettering. Its designer Silvio Napoleone found that the styles of this period combined whimsical, economic, and impactful qualities. A typeface that incorporated these characteristics could be especially relevant to today’s design aesthetic. Naploeone began by sketching an extremely... Read More

vortex
japanophilia
Move fast and break stuff

Xavier Dupré designed FF Tartine Script and FF Jambono in 2000–2001, while he worked as a type designer in a packaging design agency in Paris. Dupré just wanted to have a complete font up his sleeve when he needed to whip up a logo for someone. FF Tartine Script is an informal face specially developed for food packaging, but it is also good for logos, or in short texts, or wherever you like.

vortex
bureaucratic
Technology is no place for wimps

This lively sans combines plain shapes with calligraphic touches. FF Sanuk’s roman letterforms are clean and crisply drawn, but their stylish detailing showcases Dupré’s artistic spirit. Modestly sloped, indeed, nearly upright italics convey a contemporary air while maintaining a high degree of legibility. The seven-weight family progresses in tone from a delicate hairline to a chunky fat face,... Read More

safety
hypothenuses
Poisonous and evil rubbish

The Slate typeface family melds superb functionality and aesthetic elegance into a remarkable communications tool. Few typefaces possess the beauty and power of this design.Slate is the work of Rod McDonald, an award-winning typeface designer and lettering artist. At one point in his forty-year career, McDonald participated in a typeface legibility and readability research project conducted by... Read More

replay
microphysics
Blaze up the custom made of going

ITC Golden Type® is a revival of a typeface designed in the late nineteenth century by William Morris, who was a great Victorian designer, poet, artist, craftsman, social reformer, and printer. In his search for a solid and pure letterform to use in his private press editions, he was inspired by the roman types in books printed by Nicolas Jenson in the fifteenth century. The type he designed,... Read More

grapes
microphysics
If you can’t join them, beat them

Chaparral is the work of type designer Carol Twombly and combines the legibility of slab serif designs popularized in the 19th century with the grace of 16th century roman book lettering. The result is a versatile, hybrid slab-serif design. Unlike "geometric" slab serif designs, Chaparral has varying letter proportions that give it an accessible and friendly appearance in all weights from light... Read More

jungle
illustrative
No burning enter this place

The first sketches for the FF Clifford typeface were done in 1994. These drew inspiration from Alexander Wilson’s Long Primer Roman type, which was used to set an edition of Pliny the Younger’s “Opera,” printed by the Foulis brothers in 1751. The Italic is loosely based on Joseph Fry and Sons’ Pica Italic No. 3, from their 1785 specimen. These Roman and Italic designs combine to create FF... Read More

mystic
bureaucratic
The road to hell wasn’t paved in a day

The text typeface Apollo™ was designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1962-64, and was one of the first fonts produced by Monotype for use on their new phototypesetting machine at that time. The legible and robust Apollo has a small x-height, gently bracketed serifs, moderately open counters, and a primarily oblique axis. Frutiger designed the roman to have enough heartiness to produce a good impression... Read More

chalet
hypothenuses
Do not joke for the bathroom

Coptek is the work of David Quay and gets its name from the high tech look imposed on the design of copperplate script. The capitals are initials which fit well with a lower case alphabet whose letters join in the style of true handwriting.

chalet
guitarfishes
Hell: one way in and no way out

Fournier was made by Monotype In 1924. The design is based on types cut by Pierre Simon Fournier circa 1742, some of the most influential designs of the eighteenth century. Fournier's types were among the earliest of the "transitional" style of typeface and were a stepping stone to the more severe "modern" style made popular by Bodoni later in the century. They had more vertical emphasis... Read More

mystic
microphysics
I doubt, therefore I could be

Linotype Syntax™ Serif is the serif typeface that complements Linotype Syntax, both created by Swiss type designer Hans Eduard Meier in 2000. With this new design, Meier has at last given shape and structure to the invisible muse that inspired him in the 1950s when he conceived his monoline sans serif based on humanist or Oldstyle letterforms. The calm legibility of this workhorse text family... Read More

chalet
microphysics
Please civilization use elevator

Linotype Syntax Letter is reminiscent of the style of the Roman Rustic capitals and is an earthy, almost snappy companion to the other Linotype Syntax typefaces. Instead of subtly expressing the rhythmic dynamism of handwritten letters, this face is more overt about its connections to writing movements, such as the lead-in and exiting terminals, and the organic branching of round strokes from... Read More

Mitja Miklavcic
FontFont 2008
Rudolf Ruzicka and Alex Kaczun
Linotype 1992
Evert Bloemsma
FontFont 1993
Michael Abbink and Paul van der Laan
FontFont 2001
Viktor Solt-Bittner
FontFont 2002
Morris Fuller Benton and Dan Reynolds
Linotype 1930
Monotype.Design Studio, Christoffel van Dijck and Jan van Krimpen
Monotype
Robert Bell
Bitstream 2004
Monotype.Design Studio
Monotype
Christian Schwartz
FontFont 2002
Evert Bloemsma
FontFont 2004
José Mendoza y Almeida
ITC 1991
Silvio Napoleone
FontFont 2004

FontFont
Xavier Dupré
FontFont 2006
Rod McDonald
Monotype 2006
Helga Jörgenson, Sigrid Engelmann and William Morris
ITC 1929
Carol Twombly
Adobe 2000
Akira Kobayashi
FontFont 1999
Adrian Frutiger
Monotype 1962
Veronika Burian and José Scaglione
TypeTogether
Veronika Burian and José Scaglione
TypeTogether
David Quay
ITC 1992
Ralph M. Unger and Richard Nebiolo
profonts 2007
Monotype.Design Studio and Pierre Simon Fournier
Monotype 1742
Hans Eduard Meier
Linotype 2000
Hans Eduard Meier
Linotype 2000