A modern sans serif with open round forms.
The ”round“ letters emphasize the condensed open oval; the light counter forms provide the rhythm of the typeface, causing the typeface to appear gentle and pleasing. The ”modern“ design of a and g being especially contributive here.
All of the letters are recognizably narrow, almost ”condensed,“ the forms being very functionally shaped. The construction of the ”triangular“ upper case letters A M N V W as well as v and w, especially catches the eye with the shafts joined together as beams are stacked upon each other. With this construction JOSEF displays a down-to-earth touch.
Contrary to the classical sans serifs, a few letters were given light echoes of serifs which promote fluency: a d l are displayed below the line in a reading direction and end in a compressed but also very short serif style; on m n p r the upstroke is gently displayed and on u the downstroke.
For all the typo-maniacs among you designers there are alternative forms for a number of letters in Josef: A B D G I M R W and a d f g j l ß u. Even an antiquated ”long“ s and an upper case ß is available.
Plus, Josef includes numerous ligatures which can save that little bit of space where required and which allow the typeface to appear more variable: ch, ck, ct, fi, fj, fl, ff, ffi, ffl, ft, mm, ti, tt, tz.
The font downloadable here is a reduced version (without punctuation, ligatures, numbers etc.). A commercial version of this font (with all features) is available at
www.ingofonts.com
.