Planet typography MyFonts
The typographic Times
[August 2007]
Anselm
by František Štorm

Anselm Type System

Anselm: a challenging project

One of the good practices of today’s type foundries is that they release their type families as systems including both serif and sans serif type. Usually, the sources of inspiration need to be well tried with time and practice, since production of a type family is a much laborious and complex process. From the beginning, it needs to be clear that the result will be suited for universal use. Such systems, complete with the broad, multi-lingual variations permitted by the OpenType format, have become the elementary, default instrument of visual communication. Non-Latin scripts are useful for a wide scope of academic publications, for packaging and corporate systems alike. And what about outdoor advertisement designated for markets in developing countries? Cyrillics and Greek have become an integral part of our OpenType font systems.

Anselm
The ancestry of Anselm goes back to Jannon, a slightly modified Old Style Roman. I drew Serapion back in 1997, so its spirit is youthful, a bit frisky, and it is charmed by romantic, playful details. Anselm succeeds it after ten years of evolution, it is a sober, reliable labourer, immune to all excentricities. The most significant difference between Sebastian/Serapion and Anselm is the raised x-height of lowercase, which makes it ideal for applications in extensive texts. Our goal was to create an all-round type family, equally suitable for poetry, magazines, books, posters, and information systems.

Anselm

Anselm project: the family

Anselm

Our aim was to create a versatile typeface family useful for poetry, posters and for informational systems at the same time.

AnselmMaybe you noticed that the sans serif cuts have richer variety of the light – black scale. This is due to the fact that sans serif
families tend to be less susceptible to deformities in form, and thus they are able to retain their original character throughout the full range of weights.

AnselmOn the other hand, the nature of serifed, contrasted cuts does not permit such extremes without sacrificing their characteristic features. Both weights were drawn by hand, only the Medium cut has been interpolated.

AnselmAnselm Ten is a unique family of four cuts, slightly strengthened and adjusted for the setting in sizes around 10 pt and smaller, as its name indicates.


Related article: František Štorm interview (August 2007)