Gentium: not just free

[ktinkel]

Gentium by Victor Gaultney is a carefully designed text font that is free. Anyone can download and use it, and there are versions for all platforms. But it is not derived from other designs, and displays more thought and care than most free fonts.

Gaultney refers to it as “a typeface for the nations” and his ambitious plans include characters for every script. For now, the Latin version contains only roman and italic, with other weights under development. He has completed Greek fonts and is working on a Cyrillic version.

If you click on the link, in addition to the font you can download a PDF that describes Gentium’s development and future plans, and includes type specimens. Some of his comments illuminate aspects of type design.

Gentium won an award from TDC in 2003.