Font Friday #112

Beatrice

Beatrice is heavily unusual & striking. The sans-serif typeface Beatrice set on a mobile phone in body text. In a pull quote that is taken from Sharp Type’s website it is set in contrasting, striking style, reading: “The cozy spacing and dramatic hairlines lend the Display an exuber-ance that almost lifts 
it off the page.”

Sans-serif superfamily

from Sharp Type
designed by Connor Davenport, Inga Plönnigs, Kia Tasbihgou, Lucas Sharp

58 Styles

4 Optical sizes
7–8 Weights: Thin to Bold or Black
with matching italics

Additional Scripts

Vietnamese

Best for

  • Headings (display text)
  • Long reading text (body text)
  • User Interfaces (functional text)

License starting

around $60 (one style)
around $450 (bundle)

Specialty

This versatile sans-serif super-family, plays by its own rules for contrast. It can be loud and striking, but also quiet and serving.

Get Beatrice

My Beatrice Font Review

The sans-serif typeface Beatrice by Sharp Type is extremely contrasting and unusual. Why? Because this super-family sets its own rules for contrast. It does not follow the standard, where horizontal lines are thinner than vertical ones. Neither is it a reverse contrast typefaces, like Stadio Now or Antipol. It is something different.

Standard low contrast: horizontal lines are slightly thinner. Standard high contrast: vertical lines are heavy, horizontal lines are thin. Reverse high contrast: horizontal lines are heavy, vertical lines are thin. Internal high contrast: outer strokes are heavy, inner strokes are thin, show in Beatrice Display
Beatrice’s contrast model compared to others (image courtesy of Sharp Type)

For Beatrice Sharp Type coined the term “Internal Contrast”. With this system, stroke emphasis is set by the location of the stroke in relation to the center of the letter-shape. Outer strokes are thick, inner strokes are thin. This results in a charming, playful and striking typeface.

Display is best for large toxt, 80px Headline should be quite large too, 50 px at least Deck works in 28 px+, still striking, for digital design probably the way to go. Standard is for everything smaller. This style has low contrast and is much more restrained, making it ideal for a broad range of use cases. Like for long reading text, and even UI design.
The four optical sizes of Beatrice – use the right style for the right font size

And since high contrast only works for very large text, Beatrice comes in four different optical sizes. Display is the most flashy, with its hairline strokes, and should not be set smaller than 60 pt or 80 px. This makes it rarely useful for web design. Luckily, there is also a Headline and a Deck style, which work in sizes between 30 and 80 px.

The word contrast in all caps shown in Beatrice Display, Beatrice Headline, Beatrice Deck and Beatrice Standard. The Display style has almost hairlines the standard style is almost linear.
See how the hairline grows from Display to Standard.

When it comes to body text, Beatrice Standard is the way to go. It is almost calming, not so say boring, but that’s what it’s supposed to be here. The large x-height and the study shapes make it very versatile, even for UI design.

Beatrice is even more expressive in italics. And also comes with oblique alternates

Another thing worth highlighting, are the expressive italics. They are very organic and playful, breaking what is expected from a typeface that is built upon the foundation of the sober American Gothic. If that is too much for you, Beatrice also comes with oblique alternates. Overall, a typeface with heavy opposites and surprises, shining in loud identity projects, and still performing in quiet copy.

Font Pairings for Beatrice

This rational contrasting sans-serif typeface has so many styles, that you definitely will get most out of it when you make use of the Beatrice superfamily. However, if you want to give an even weirder twist, pair it with Kyiv*Type Sans.

Beatrice
Beatrice
  • Headings
  • Copy
  • UI Text
Climate Crisis (free)
Climate Crisis (free)
  • Headings
Kyiv*Type Sans (free)
Kyiv*Type Sans (free)
  • Headings
  • Copy
  • UI Text

Learn more about pairing typefaces using the Font Matrix.

What do you think of this week’s typeface? Write it in the comments! Also, if you have a suggestion for an upcoming Font Friday 😉.

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Edition #112, published

2 Comments

  1. I’m overwhelmed by the beauty of maDame Beatrice😱
    Straight to the list of this year’s favorites!!

    Happy Easter to your family 🎉 Next weekend is the Eatser in my country.

    Back to Beatrice, I can’t choose which option is the best. Italic is surprisingly super, which I didn’t expect from such a heavy-lifting, pardon, type! Oblique alternates are a true masterpiece.
    Even in the Display version the contrast between thick and thin works, despite being opposite. And it’s not grumpy.

    words: “large” where a, r, and g dance, then word “oblique” where i is an identity itself…
    So many breathtaking details, thank you for this delight, Oliver!
    Here are some suggestions to explore and maybe see in the future FF👇🏻
    Lenora
    Noe Display
    FS Siena by Fontsmith

    Have a fun little holiday🙌🏻

    Reply

    1. “And it’s not grumpy.” 😂 LOVE that, Jana! Lenora has wonderful contrast, too! Noe Display is a bit more aggressive, but still appealing. FS Siena, very noble in its simplicity. Thanks for the suggestions!

      Reply

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