I don’t know if this is gonna float anyone else’s boat, but it made my afternoon! The @stabi_berlin just uploaded its digitization of a specimen for Ramses, a serif typeface designed by Hermann Delitsch for Julius Klinkhardt around 1912. The specimen’s title page features a stylized ornament that depicts Pharaoh Ramesses II. I instantly recognized it! H. Berthold AG acquired Klinkhardt after WWI, and Joseph Tscherkassy – a Ukrainian-Jewish former typefounder who fled to Berlin during WWI – reused it on a page from his 1924 specimen of H. Berthold AG’s Hebrew and Yiddish typefaces. I instantly recognized it from that catalog. In some quarters, it is considered the most beautiful metal type specimen ever printed.

https://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht?PPN=PPN1963801857&PHYSID=PHYS_0001&view=overview-toc&DMDID=

https://berlin.museum-digital.de/singleimage?imagenr=102887#map=1.38/1621.28/1361.67/0

Preparing for my talk next week at the Fontstand Conference in Berlin!

Yes, the topic is admittedly a bit niche: “Rounded sans in Japan.” I’ll be looking at why rounded sans is so widely used in Japan, and why it carries quite different connotations there – tracing its roots in calligraphy, sign painting, and multiscript typography.

It will be a visually rich presentation, and I hope it offers fresh insights — not only for CJK design enthusiasts, but also for anyone curious about how design and culture intersect.

Here are a few teaser Images!

Cover Die Reklame, Berliner Heft, Erasmusdrucke, 2. Märzheft 1927
Year: 1927

Cover design: n.n. (possibly Erasmusdruck Berlin)

Learn more:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kirsten_solveig_schneider/55167701815/

Courtesey #KirstenSolveigSchneider

RE: https://typo.social/@fontstand/116284544665393467

Four of these tickets come at half price, if you are a student. Get in touch before they’re gone.

Yesterday I learned about an InDesign plugin that makes using variable fonts much easier. The values ​​on an axis (for example, the weight axis) can be easily applied to individual words, lines of text, or entire paragraphs.

Just tried it out with Salou! 💥

👍 Great work by the foundry HAL Typefaces.

➡️ Download:
https://type.hanli.eu/typepad-manual/