Condensed Italic Styles

Michael Jarboe
Michael Jarboe Posts: 265
in Type Design Technique & Theory
Are there different schools of thought on the purpose and/or need for condensed italic styles, regardless of genre? I'm trying to understand the reasoning behind their inclusion or exclusion amongst various typeface families.
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Comments

  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn Posts: 2,333
    If you have a roman, then you need an italic for editorial reasons, unless it’s an out-and-out display font.

    And then there’s that new FontFont Erik Spiekermann just tweeted me about.
  • Craig Eliason
    Craig Eliason Posts: 1,492
    Are you asking why many italics are condensed relative to their romans?
  • Michael Jarboe
    Michael Jarboe Posts: 265
    Yeah, it just seems there are instances where a standard width font (primarily intended for display) will be released with italic styles whereas the condensed widths of the same font (primarily intended for display) will not include italic styles.

    So you'll have:

    Example Sans (includes italic styles)
    Example Sans Condensed (no italic styles included)
    Example Sans X-Condensed (no italic styles included)
    Example Sans Text (includes italic styles)

    Just made me curious what the thought process is for this.
  • James Puckett
    James Puckett Posts: 2,041
    It’s possible that the condensed fonts were commissioned by a client who only needed roman versions. Plenty of publications don’t use italics in headlines.

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