It’s not unusual for type foundries to cross-license fonts to each other, or to license them to distributors like WebINK. What’s less common is to license fonts to another foundry, who then revises them. But that’s what ParaType often does, adding Cyrillic support to classic designs from many sources. We’re pleased to have recently added another 79 fonts from 24 families that ParaType licenses from Bitstream, the world’s first independent digital type foundry.
Browsing the list alphabetically, I noticed a particularly impressive set of four in a row that seem to warrant special mention:
- Baker Signet was designed by calligrapher and type designer Arthur Baker in 1965 for VGC. I’ve never been able to decide exactly how to categorize it—Sans serif, calligraphic? serif?—but it’s my favorite in Baker’s extensive body of work. Evgeny Sadko added the Cyrillic in 2008 for ParaType.
- Bank Gothic is Morris Fuller Benton’s squared cap-and-small-caps sans serif for American Type Founders in the early 1930s remains a classic. The shapes of the letters make it hold up well on screen; the medium weight works down to 15 px. Cyrillic was added by Tagir Safayev in 1997.
- Bell Gothic was originally commissioned to make Bell’s tiny phone book text more legible, but today is more popular at large sizes. It was designed by Mergenthaler’s Chauncey Griffith and debuted in 1937-38. Cyrillic was added by Isabella Chaeva.
- Caslon 540 is American Type Founders’ 1902 take on William Caslon’s English designs of the early 1700s. Caslon was used to set the printed versions of the Declaration of Independence, and for over a century, one could hear American printers declaring, “When in doubt, use Caslon.” ParaType added Cyrillic support exactly a century later, courtesy of Isay Slutsker and Manvel Shmavonyan.
(4.00 out of 5)