A versatile Serif type family with optical sizes

Palast is a type system of three size-specific optical sub-families: Palast Poster, Palast Display & Palast Text designed by Hannes von Döhren & Bernd Volmer. Palast Poster is intended for use in extra large sizes, at which the extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes looks spot on. Palast Display is designed for headlines, medium sizes and short text. Palast Text has the lowest contrast of the three optical sizes, making it perfect for long texts in small sizes. The Palast type system comes in one variable font family that includes all optical sizes, bringing total flexibility to the user.

Palast bridges the gap between a systematically constructed serif typeface that follows mathematically precise stems and curves on the one hand and the optical corrections required to achieve a balanced typeface on the other. We established design rules early on that would guide us through the design process. Before we could explore rhythm and dimentions with control characters »H« and »O«, we defined the default serifs.

The design of Palast can be categorized as a transitional serif – similar to Caslon or Baskerville – in-between renaissance and neoclassic designs with geometric influences. It combines the best of two worlds: The display quality of modern types and the text qualities of oldstyle faces like Garamond or Jenson.

Right from the start we systematically defined standard stem weights for vertical and horizontal stems in round segments, in straight segments and for the serifs. Legibility (the recognizability of letters) and readability (the equilibrium of shapes in text) were always a number one priority, so we had to establish systematic exceptions to these rules in the process. We wanted to create an elegant typeface with contrast, so we optically adjusted serifs and horizontal stems in order to avoid the stiff look of low-contrast slab serif typefaces. While the thin weights followed rather clear design principles and therefore needed less optical adjusting, the bolder weights required more corrections in order to balance the overall appearance of the text and to optimize legibility.

Some of the surprising, unseen shapes we came up with in the design process can be found in the top of the »t« or the top serifs in »l«, which is also present in »b« »d« »h« and »k«. We came up with different designs for several letters and discussed which letters need serifs and which could benefit from looking simpler without serifs. Throughout the design process we tried a variety of different solutions for the serifs on letters like »c« for example. Changing the top serif in »c« to a ball or a half drop had a huge impact on the overall appearance of Palast. And of course changing the »c« to a half drop terminal also impacted other letter like the lowercase »a« for example.

A high contrast font is normally designed for use at large sizes. When using a high contrast typeface in small sizes the thin parts and the fine details are getting too thin to be rendered or printed and the result would be a terrible reading experience. We did not want to compromise on the high contrast of the Poster styles, so we designed a version optimized for small sizes. We changed the stroke contrast, worked on the details and on the proportions to optimize the reading rhythm. We made sure that each letter and each detail look best at each specific style, so that the letters will always be rendered and printed nicely. In the process we decided to add a Display family that sits between the Text and the Poster family, optimized for headlines and short texts. This results in a type system of three optical sizes and 36 fonts in total.

We created a printed type specimen showing the Palast type family in all optical sizes and giving some more insights about the design process.

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Special thanks to Simon Kaempfer for the wonderful cgi-worlds!

Thank You.