Monotype adds Ysobel Pro font for newspaper design

The Ysobel (pronounced 'Isabel') typeface family is intended primarily for newspaper and periodical copy. Designed by Robin Nicholas, head of typography at Monotype, and type designers Alice Savoie and Delve Withrington, the typefaces were designed for both text and display applications.

According to Nicholas, the idea for the Ysobel faces started when he was asked to create a custom, updated version of the classic Century Schoolbook typeface, which was designed to be an extremely readable typeface – one that made its appearance in school textbooks beginning in the early 1900s." />

Monotype has released the 20-font Ysobel Pro typeface suite.

The Ysobel (pronounced 'Isabel') typeface family is intended primarily for newspaper and periodical copy. Designed by Robin Nicholas, head of typography at Monotype, and type designers Alice Savoie and Delve Withrington, the typefaces were designed for both text and display applications.

According to Nicholas, the idea for the Ysobel faces started when he was asked to create a custom, updated version of the classic Century Schoolbook typeface, which was designed to be an extremely readable typeface – one that made its appearance in school textbooks beginning in the early 1900s.

"I wanted to give the design a more contemporary feel, although the client ultimately decided to keep their typeface closer to the original. The project nevertheless gave me ideas for a new design," said Nicholas.

Development began with the text version of Ysobel, which comprises eight fonts. All weights feature lining and old style numerals, fractions, superior numbers and extended Latin language coverage. Small caps are also available in the Ysobel Pro Regular font. The 12-font Ysobel Display Pro family is a completely redrawn version of Ysobel; it is narrower and features other nuances for improving the design's appearance at large text sizes.

Ysobel Pro fonts support 48 western, central and eastern European languages, including Baltic and Turkish and is available in the OpenType cross-platform font format. Typefaces include OpenType features such as ligatures, small caps and several numerical figures.