Readymag Design Almanac: Typography

1. Proportions

The basic difference in the proportions of Chaparral and Proxima Nova is the x-heights in equivalent body sizes. The relations of uppercase and lowercase in Chaparral are close to those of classical Renaissance faces, with the lowercase letters rising slightly higher than the midpoint of the capitals (a relation of 2 to 3). The vertical parameters of Proxima are more contemporary: large x-height and quite short ascenders and descenders.

Despite the variations in width of Chaparral's lowercase letters, which are very much like 15th-16th century faces, Chaparral's narrowed capitals (C, D, G, O and Q) take it out of the humanist class. It is a hybrid. The proportions of Proxima's capitals are more rationalized. The wide C, D, G, O and Q, along with the even wider B, E, F, P, J, Y and V, keep the rhythm of the face consistent and calm.

Proxima's lowercase letters are more consistent than Chaparral's in their proportions but, in hybrid fashion, combine details of old 19th-century grotesques and 20th-century geometric sans serifs.

Used as body faces, these fonts are very different in rhythmic potential. Proxima, with its squat lowercase letters and short extenders, produces a solid, horizontal line. Chaparral, with its short lowercase letters and relatively long ascenders, creates a more complex effect, both within and between lines.

2. Details

With its moderate degree of contrast and slab serifs — more suggestive of typewriter than of Renaissance faces — Chaparral avoids monotony through variety of proportions and wealth of shapes. On the other hand, Proxima is a rather varied assemblage of shapes and details. But they work as a team.

Chaparral Pro is a slab-serif typeface designed by Carol Twombly of Adobe Systems and released in 2000.

Twombly is a well-known American calligrapher and type designer who has designed many typefaces, including such widely popular examples as Trajan, Myriad and Adobe Caslon.

Robert Bringhurst in his Elements of Typographic Style wrote: “Carol Twombly completed this extraordinarily clean and seemingly imperturbable typeface in 1997. Most good text types owe their power in part to the rhythmic modulation of the line. Here there is some modulation, but very little, and the power comes from the path of the stroke: the subtle out-of-roundness of the bowls and microscopic taper of the stems.”

The slab serif, thanks to its high legibility, is an appropriate choice for texts of all sizes in print or on screen.

The typeface is available to Readymag users in eight styles: Light, Light Italic, Regular, Italic, SemiBold, SemiBold Italic, Bold, Bold Italic.

In its few years of existence, Proxima Nova has become widely popular and is much used in print and for screens.

Its well-deserved success is due to its generally eclectic character. The Proxima Nova look is a synthesis of very different historical models: from so-called “engineer” grotesques used for nameplates, certain kinds of industrial documents and in road signs (say hello to Copperplate Gothic, Sweet Sans, Gotham and Interstate!) to faces derived from avant-garde aesthetics (hello Futura!) and the stylistics of Art Deco (hello Kabel!). All these sources do, in fact, have something in common — their obvious basis in clear geometric forms.

In more than a quarter-century of development (the first sketches date from 1981), Mark Simonson has created a typeface in which the particulars and spirit of sans serif from a variety of times work in harmony and that, thanks to careful drawing and exact proportions, serves equally well for display purposes and as a body face.

The typeface is available to Readymag users in 14 styles: Thin, Thin Italic, Light, Light Italic, Regular, Italic, SemiBold, SemiBold Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, ExtraBold, ExtraBold Italic, Black, Black Italic

The pairing of Sauber Script and Aktiv Grotesk stands on the principle of contrast: the fonts are entirely distinct from each other. Aktiv Grotesk is sleek and versatile, modern and utilitarian, it takes an authoritative but neutral position, lending your message just the right impact. Sauber Script is the complete opposite: a sweet ice-cream font, active and friendly. That being said, they both have very clean silhouettes. Together, Sauber and Aktiv Grotesk reinforce and emphasize each other's features.