Dear TypeDrawers community,
I'm a typographer and a book designer, and a longtime reader of this forum. I used to be active on Typophile, and I recognize many of the current contributors from there. I have a very specific question that I hope someone here can help with.
I’m interested in licensing DTL Van den Keere for a book design project, but I am unable to verify that the family includes an italic in the text cut. As you can see in the screenshots attached here, the relevant page of the specimen, entitled “Roman und Italic Text Regular” showcases the roman but has a blank space where the italic is apparently supposed to be. The various dropdown menus on the DTL sites (both of them) omit the text italic from the list of styles. I can find no sample of the italic in the text cut, nor even any confirmation that it exists. However, this style does show up in the online store for purchase. But I hesitate to purchase a font that I cannot first see.
I e-mailed DTL about this a week ago, but having heard nothing, I’m hoping maybe someone else can help me figure this out. I would be very happy to go ahead and license the face for this project, provided I can find a specimen of the text italic first.
Thank you to all for any assistance you can provide.
[I've categorized this as "type business," which is my best guess of topic, but feel free to move it.]
Josh
Comments
https://www.urwtype.com/en/shop/?fontshop=datei:show_font_details;fontnummer:v019013d;
Micha, thanks. Unless I am mistaken, it looks like URW licenses only the display cuts — thus the (D) in the font names — and not the text cut that I am looking for.
Thank you for the very thorough and informative response! This makes a lot of sense and clarifies why I was able to find scattered references to the text italic but not the face itself. The italic and other styles are certainly very tantalizing, and I hope that they will eventually be released. The good news for me is that I am planning for a project far in advance, and it is possible that should these styles, particularly the text italic, become available within the next couple of years, I might still be able to make use of them. And if not, I hope to have a chance to use them for something whenever they do become available.
Thanks again for taking the time to respond, and best of luck with the rest of your very busy-sounding year!
Josh
https://klim.co.nz/retail-fonts/heldane-display/
https://klim.co.nz/retail-fonts/heldane-text/
Best,
Josh
I'm reviving this conversation four years later (!) because the project for which I was interested in licensing the text cut of DTL Van den Keere, including the italic, is still in progress, and I am still holding out hope that the font will be released in time for me to use it — say, in the next year or so.
I have once again sent a message in to DTL via their web site but haven't received a response. (Frank and other DTL folks, perhaps your web contact form is malfunctioning?)
So I return here to ask Dr. Blokland whether there is any update on the availability of the Van den Keere text italic. The typeface remains my number-one choice for a forthcoming scholarly book.
Thanks and best,
Josh
@LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland
That said, DTL VandenKeere was originally produced over 30 years ago and the idea was that the display version would be created first and the text version would be based on that. To be honest, I was never overly excited about the text version. Moreover, my research got in the way a bit and I decided to create a new version of DTL VandenKeere for the text sizes in which I incorporate my findings regarding Renaissance standardization and systematization. Next year should be feasible and actually necessary, as the typeface has been somewhat incomplete for quite some time.