It all started as an exercise presented by David Březina to his students at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno. The idea was to create a simple font designed to work within the limitations of handjet printers, but from there he realized he could extend that concept, and the result is Handjet. This variable font uses pixels with different shapes (circles, hearts, diagonals, etc.), giving access to a wide range of designs, and you can download the complete set today, free of charge.
Some fonts simply repeat the same rules over and over. Anyone at this point might think “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, but it’s never a bad idea to experiment, try something different, make a mistake, and look for another path. Creativity is fundamental, as there will always be a project with specific restrictions that designers must overcome with speed and elegance. During the last autumn, designer David Březina had the opportunity to teach typography design to a group of students at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno. All participants managed to create a basic font that obeys the 32-pixel height of handjet printers, but Březina concluded he could go further, and created Handjet.
Design and Features
Handjet is based on the same initial 32-pixel grid, with some characters using a more flexible 16-pixel grid. Instead of simple dots to define characters, Handjet has a total of eleven “elemental shapes”: stripes (3), ovals (3), squares, circles, hearts, clovers, and diamonds. These elements are positioned singly or doubly, giving each font a certain emphasis. The total number of styles reaches 198 fonts, and the good news is that you can download them all today for free, as long as you accept some special conditions. For example, there is a license for personal use (maximum of five users) and another compatible with websites that have less than half a million visits per month.
Personal Notes
Personally, I do not recommend installing all variations of Handjet, simply because they can bring the humblest computers to their knees. At the same time, some fonts do not seem to render correctly in Windows, but right now I only have one terminal at my disposal, and I cannot install Handjet on another PC to check if it’s a local issue. Anyway, if you are someone who closely follows typography and font development, you will most likely download a copy of Handjet.
Official site: Rosetta Type
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