The aesthetics of the fledgling DTP era have long been disdained. Today, there is a growing fascination for the days when computers were beige and boxy and software came on floppy disks. Print ads, logos, and startup screens used oldstyle serifs like Garamond and Goudy. The default application font was Times: ever since it came installed on the first laser printers by IBM and Xerox and then on Apple’s LaserWriter, TNR has been a fixture in digital typography. It was one of the core fonts that shipped with Microsoft Windows in 1990, and for many years one of just two feasible options for specifying serifed text on the web.

Items is a contemporary typeface that ties in with the pervasive serifs of the early digital period. Reconciling familiarity with beauty, it seeks to overcome the limitations of Times & co. Its design is more consistent, with a contrast axis and top serifs that exhibit the same angle across all weights. Drawn with a focus on carefully modulated blacks and shapely whites, Items achieves an even typographic color. The letter fit is tight, letting it shine in display sizes. It’s infused with slick details – like the spurred G as found in types cut in Antwerp in the 1500s, or the joins that taper to a point – that make for a crisp look in titles and headlines. The robust build featuring a large x-height ensures a pleasant performance in text sizes, too, granted that the spacing is opened up.

Items offers three widths in six weights, all with matching italics. For those who need finer control, it is available as a variable font. Thanks to this wide palette, Items reaches far beyond the possibilities of the four basic styles of system fonts. Each facet conjures distinct associations. The Condensed Black, for example, has qualities similar to the punchy Times variant seen on paperback designs by Fleckhaus. The other end of the weight spectrum echoes the days when the Macintosh boasted a narrow Garamond. Items Wide opens up a whole new dimension, exploring what a transitional serif would look like if freed from space constraints. On top of that, each subfamily has a Monospace style that is awkward and alluring at once. Characterized by fixed proportions and rather spindly strokes, this extension references the Latin glyphs included in fonts made for Chinese and Japanese scripts.

Dig deeper into the character set for the extras. In addition to functional ligatures, there are scores of capital pairs as found in ancient epigraphs, with two letters sharing a stem. Scroll past alternates and various types of numerals to discover a set of pixel arrows, punctuation marks, and icons: these cute jaggy miniatures play up the 1980s nostalgia, and can be read as a homage to the work of Susan Kare.