Parmigiano Sans

The Parmigiano Typographic System (named after Parma, the city where Bodoni established his printing house) has the stated ambition to be the most extensive family of fonts ever to have been inspired by Giambattista Bodoni. The idea of a sans serif to accompany a roman inspired by Bodoni raises the question of how to apply Bodoni’s design sensibilities to a typeface he would never have designed. Parmigiano Sans owes a design debt to early 19th-century grotesques such as William Thorowgood’s Seven Line Grotesque (1834), which were characterised by pronounced contrasts between thick and thin strokes, brusque terminations and an overall roundness of the letters. While these features are quite obvious in the bolder cuts of Parmigiano Sans, the lighter weights show less contrast and the Light cut is almost monolinear.

Parmigiano Sans was designed to strike a balance between the primitiveness of the early grotesques and a less eccentric and normalised structure. Although the proportions and the weights of Parmigiano Sans are based on Parmigiano Text, thanks to the fine crafting of details it gains a unique personality which makes it suitable for a wide range of uses. Parmigiano Sans’ sturdy and no-nonsense qualities are ideal for texts in small sizes. When used in progressively bigger sizes its details gain prominence, which, in combination with its narrow proportions, makes it a good choice for headlines.

Each weight of Parmigiano Sans includes eight different kinds of numerals. Proportional old-style figures come as default figures in Parmigiano Sans. It also, however, includes lining figures, tabular numerals (both lining and old-style), superior, inferior, circled and circled inverted numerals. For running text, old-style figures work best; for use in capital setting, use lining figures. When you take a licence for this font, you can choose your own default numeral variant.