BUFFALO, NY—On July 14, P22 Type Foundry, renowned for its historically inspired typefaces, released its newest font. Civilité is a historical script font based on 16th century sources, created by Colin Kahn with assistance from Richard Kegler and Milo Kowalski.

The Gothic italic typeface was originally created around 1557 by 16th century French letter-cutter Robert Granjon. Unfortunately, Granjon’s original punches did not survive. However, they were flawlessly reproduced in a book published in 1978 (translated into English from the 1908 original in Dutch), called Type Foundries in the Netherlands from the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth Century.

Based on this source, Buffalo, N.Y.-based type foundry P22 created six basic Dutch versions of the Civilité font. These include “historical,” “modern” and “sorts” styles in basic OpenType format, and pro versions that combine all of the styles into one OpenType font. The suite also includes an ornamental titling version of all the uppercase letters.

Because some characters were so archaic, P22 revised the original typeface for the “modern” versions to make it accessible for a wider audience.

“The modern versions may be the most widely used styles in the suite,” says Jimy Chambers, general manager of facilities operations at P22. “However, that really depends on the user and the use. The fonts are suitable for display and decorative purposes but can also be used for running text applications to achieve the effect of an authentic period piece.”

According to Chambers, many designers will likely use Civilité for decorative purposes because of its ornate style.

“Certain designers will find uses for it but it may be a bit limited for text applications in today’s world,” Chambers says. “You’re obviously not going to find a newspaper purchasing Civilité to use for their everyday font.”

The Civilité suite can be purchased for $99.95 until the end of July, and $169.95. Contact: www.p22.com