Francesco has been created by Franck Jalleau. This flexible and vigorous typeface is inspired by venitian faces of the Renaissance, especially those cut by Francesco Griffo. Mixing Old-Style classicism and manual drawing subtelty, Francesco is soft and friendly without compromising readability.
Francesco is designed like no other conventionnal typeface. With its obstructed counterforms (a, e), it evokes the XVth century prints. Like punchcutters did, by chopping letters from steel one by one, Francesco has several designs for similar letters, thus bringing variety in the setting. Likewise, some usually rationnalized shapes (serifs) are subtly crafted in Francesco and render a vibrant, lively text. Francesco features numerous ligatures and alternates to enhance titles and short texts. One of the source material used by Franck Jalleau is the 1499 "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili", printed by Aldus Manutius, Renaissance's greatest printer. This mythic book and its fine and innovatice typography has been carefully studied. It gave birth to this unique digital version, respawning the art of the Renaissance.