My thoughts on Árida
What I love about Árida by Alfonso García is its calligraphic nature. You can truly feel the lively broad pen writing, when looking at it (see angles and the contrasting stokes). It creates a noble, and classy atmosphere, while the regular weight appears a bit softer, and the stronger weights become very sharp and contrasting.
Due to its classic look Árida might be associated with print and editorial design, but why shouldn’t you use this gem in a digital application? When you do, consider the typeface is pretty narrow, and has a relatively low x-height. This means the lower case letters are quite small compared to the uppercase letters (as a comparison see this tremendous x-height). So it is beneficial to set it in larger sizes, I’d go for 15 to 20% bigger. Using Arida for titles and headings – ninguna problema. For body text – perfecto! But for UI and functional text – no way, José.
Árida offers you a lot of alternate characters, and includes small caps in every weight. Small caps are not just scaled down versions of upper case letters. Yes, they have the same shapes, but they are slightly wider and most importantly their stroke weight fits the lower case letters. I also like the almost upright italic which is only included in the regular weight. This and the different weights give you a lot of options for text emphasis from subtle to very strong.
Is Árida, the elegant typeface with a calligraphic appeal, something for your next project? Write it in the comments blow!