Fraunces
Every word on this site is set in Fraunces — a warm, old-style serif that ships as a single variable file and does the work of a whole family. Four axes, one italic, and a deliberate streak of wonk. This is the studio's voice, laid out the way a foundry lays out its own.
drive the axes
Bend it yourself
One outline, four dials. Drag any slider — or pick a preset — and the same word morphs through the whole design space, no page reload, no new font to download.
Nightwork
Thickens hairlines and opens the counters as the type shrinks; sharpens the contrast as it grows to cover size.
From a whispered hairline at 100 to the full black at 900 — one continuous mass, not nine separate fonts.
Rounds the corners and terminals. At zero the face is crisp and drawn; wound up, it turns friendly, almost hand-inked.
Swaps in the crooked, characterful alternates — the leaning n, m and h a studio of trolls could hardly refuse.
the wght axis
Nine weights, one file
A continuous mass axis, sampled here at the nine stops a print foundry would name — every value between them is fair game too.
- 100 Built through the night Thin
- 200 Built through the night Extra Light
- 300 Built through the night Light
- 400 Built through the night Regular
- 500 Built through the night Medium
- 600 Built through the night Semi Bold
- 700 Built through the night Bold
- 800 Built through the night Extra Bold
- 900 Built through the night Black
the opsz axis
The same word, drawn for its size
Optical size is the axis a reader never notices and always feels. Set for caption sizes the letters grow sturdy, their hairlines thickened to survive; set for a cover they turn sharp and high-contrast. Both blocks below are printed at the very same display size, so only the axis is talking.
Newsprint
Newsprint
the soft axis
A softer press
Wound all the way up, the corners round and the terminals swell — the face stops being drawn and starts being inked.
the wonk axis
The house eccentric
Wonk swaps in the crooked alternates — look at the leaning n, m and i. We ship the site with it turned on. Of course we do.
the character set
The whole cast
Set at a reading weight, wonk on — the letters, figures and marks exactly as they fall across the pages of this site.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
0123456789
& @ ? ! ; : , . “ ” ‘ ’ — – ( ) / * § ¶
at reading size
A face earns its keep in the paragraph, not the poster. Down here at reading size the optical axis quietly does its work — hairlines hold, counters stay open, and the wonk steps aside so nothing snags the eye. The words carry the weight, the way they should. When the studio wants to raise its voice, the very same file climbs to a cover.
“One outline, bent to every job on the page — from the fine print to the front cover.”
The rest of the press
We hold our own type to the same standard as our products. The colophon has the full production spec; the work speaks for itself.