Laying somewhere between a Transitional and a Scotch Roman, CoType Foundry’s glistening new release, Orbikular, brings two of modern history’s most influential and iconic font styles into the realm of variable technology. With its relaxed familiarity, subtle intricacies and deeply thought out features, Orbikular arrives as an instant classic and an irreplaceable addition to any designer’s toolkit.
This functional serif will undoubtably stand the test of time. Shining a modern light on its classic form, it’s the perfect font for those looking to create a classic-yet-unique voice with their typography. Crafted with close attention to detail, each glyph is meticulous, gentle and generous – designed to create a comfortable, considered reading experience, while maximising legibility in both large and small point sizes.
In a move to encourage readers to acknowledge the beauty of Orbikular’s forms, ball terminals and a high x-height flow in stunning harmony with the relaxed, breathable kerning. With its vertical stress and high contrast, Orbikular stays true to its functional nature and is well equipped to accommodate body copy and typesetting at smaller sizes.
However, Orbikular’s talents are by no means exclusive to smaller point sizes. CoType have done an incredible job of equipping the font with stunning alternate characters, alongside various ligatures and symbols, to allow Orbikular to be flexed and fine-tuned into a variety of typographic flavours. Alongside the integration of variable font technology, Orbikular comes in a wide variety of weights – some of which are kind of unusual of your typical text font family. This generous move allows for further malleability to a wide range of needs, and means Orbikular is uniquely flexible as a text-style family. These additional weights include a stunning ExtraLight and ExtraBold weight, each with their own elegant matching italics.
With a character set spanning the Latin Extended unicode rage, Orbikular is able to accommodate most languages written in the Latin script, again bringing its flexibility to the foreground. Where pre-defined weights might not float your boat, Orbikular’s variability slider allows users to select from hundreds of weight grades, adding a whole new level of opportunity for designers to tailor Orbikular to their needs.
As with all of CoType’s fonts, Orbikular comes with a free font trial in their three most popular weights (Light, Regular and Bold), meaning you can try before you buy. And, with Orbikular, CoType teamed up with the incredible Matt Willey of Pentagram to create a gorgeous, A3 type specimen available free with all purchases of Orbikular Essential and Full Full Family! Printed by Identity Print on Fedrigoni UK Arena Natural Bulk, this stunning specimen is a delicious treat served on the side of Orbikular.
Big thanks to CoType Foundry! Orbikular is available now.
