Freaky Greeks

Ray Larabie
Ray Larabie Posts: 1,503
edited April 2020 in Type Design Technique & Theory
Check out the Greek Compacta and Eurostile in the 1988 Letraset catalog—quite progressive, I think. I like in Eurostile how the ζ is a z and the λ is dropped. And then in Compacta, they keep the β, ζ and ξ aligned to the x-height. Whaddya think?


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  • Adam Jagosz
    Adam Jagosz Posts: 690
    edited April 2020
    Dropped λ is common in modern (especially pointed-nib) calligraphy. It works there, because the entire "wide portion" of the letter is delegated to the descender space, kind of like Latin j. Not sure how well it works here.
    Interesting how the arms are shorter than the x-height in Compacta's ψ — I suppose it aids legibility in the otherwise tightly packed forest of full stems.
  • Craig Eliason
    Craig Eliason Posts: 1,528
    Hadn’t occurred to me before, but a bold condensed Ξ is pretty much impossible, isn’t it. 
  • Deactivated User
    Deactivated User Posts: 11
    Rüdiger's Theodor and probably some others I've seen add a vertical bar to fill the gaps. Not sure how common a practice that is but it seems like it works.
  • John Savard
    John Savard Posts: 1,262
    Well, a dropped lambda works very well in Letraset. If you don't like it, you can just move the sheet up.

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