Gordian Kapitalen

Gordian, an elegant sans serif with very slightly modulated strokes, is rooted in classic Roman square capitals, designed to be engraved in stone. The author of the typeface, Nikola Djurek, has practised stone carving, which is reflected in the subtle chiselling of Gordian’s flaring stroke endings. These traditional roots, however, combine with modern characteristics (wider B, E, F, P and S characters, plus a complete set of lowercase letters) to create a distinctly 21st-century typeface, and there is also a generous selection of alternative glyphs which can serve to give the text either a more classical or a more modern feel.

Gordian has four weights designed for intermediate text sizes, each with true italics and small caps. It also includes 12 stunning display styles in two versions, Kapitalen (four weights of plain single capitals) and Knot (eight sets of entangled double capitals), the latter featuring smart OpenType functions that create various interactive patterns.

Each weight of Gordian includes nine different kinds of numerals. Proportional old-style figures come as default figures in Gordian. It also, however, includes lining figures, tabular numerals (both lining and old-style), small caps numerals, superior, inferior, circled and circled inverted numerals. For the running text, old-style figures work best; for capital setting, use lining figures; and for small caps, choose the specially designed Small Caps numerals applicable via OpenType layout features. When you take a licence for this font you can choose the default numeral variants inside the fonts.

In addition to four static styles, NE, SE, SW and NE, Gordian Kapitalen includes four smart fonts with OpenType substitutions programmed to rotate multiple alternatives of each glyph to create unique word patterns. These display fonts either cycle through all variations, or mix them randomly, and you can also choose whether they all sit on the baseline, or move up and down to reinforce the dynamic character of the Gordian Kapitalen.

Like many Typotheque fonts, Gordian also includes alternative versions of some basic characters accessible as Stylistic Sets. For example, there is a simple lower-case ‘g’, an alternative double-storey ‘g’, and an alternative shape of the capital ‘G’ too.