I have prepared a number of specimen pages that shows Playfair in context.
A sample of the many combinations of axes and other font features available
A dictionary
A newspaper
A stage play
A scientific paper
Legislation
The entirety of Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species’
The Open Font License agreement
Playfair 2.1 extends and improves on Playfair Display. Playfair 2.1 is now a three axes variable font. This means that you, the designer, can choose any combination of width, weight, and optical size contained within these design extrema.
Playfair 2.1 is well suited for general purpose typesetting. It has an extra large x-height and short descenders. Because it is now a variable font, you the designer can seamlessly interpolate Playfair in three dimensions:
- Widths from Semi-Condensed to Semi-Expanded
- Weights from Normal to Black
- Optical sizes from Agate to Needlepoint
The optical size axis is the most extreme of the axes. Along that axis you can seamlessly change the letterforms from the extremely small Agate to the extremely big Needlepoint. The Agate has a very low contrast between the thickest and thinnest parts of its strokes, in fact the contrast is even slightly negative, meaning the the horizontal strokes are heavier than the vertical strokes. At the other end the Needlepoint is as high contrast as practically possible. The thinnest strokes are but a single unit wide, meaning that if you were to typeset in 1000 points using a Needlepoint weight, the resulting thinnest strokes would be one point wide.
The weight axis adds a second dimension by allowing you to seamlessly change from a light regular to a dark black.
Playfair 2.1 has been designed with context-dependant alternate designs of some glyphs. These alternates are automatically applied based on the optical size, the width, and the weight of the text.
The third axis allows you to seamlessly change from Semi-Condensed to Semi-Expanded. Any combination within this design-envelope is now available to you. This kind of flexibility means that you the designer can find the perfect expression in any context. You can make subtle changes to harmonise the way renderings vary across media, devices, or even specific web browsers.
Playfair 2.1 is stylistically a transitional design. From the time of enlightenment in the late 18th century, the broad nib quills were replaced by pointed steel pens. This influenced typographical letterforms to become increasingly detached from the written ones. Developments in printing technology, ink, and paper making made it possible to print letterforms of high contrast and delicate hairlines.
Playfair 2.1 supports both the Latin and Cyrillic scripts with a glyph complement for the most used languages using these scripts.
Playfair 2.1 has been designed with context-dependant alternate designs of some glyphs. These alternates are automatically applied based on the optical size, the width, and the weight of the text. These substitutions are primarily instantiated in the smallest sizes. The smaller, the narrower, and the darker you typeset, the more of these substitutions you will encounter.
Playfair 2.1 Contains several stylistic alternate letterforms so that you the designer can change how your text appears to the world. Additionally Playfair 2.1 includes a full complement of small-caps for both the Latin and Cyrillic scripts, common ligatures, rare ligatures including ſ, and discretionary ligatures.
- Polish alternate kreska forms are included.
- Catalan punt volat is supported.
- Dutch IJ and ij is supported.
- Case-transformation of Turkic languages is supported.
- Icelandic and Faroese fð and fþ ligatures included.
- Romanian comma accents are supported.
- Serbian Cyrillic letterforms are included.
- Bulgarian Cyrillic letterforms are included.
- Special design of the її combination for Ukrainian is included.
- Vietnamese double-stacked diacritical marks are included.
- Mark-to-mark positioning and composition of diacritical marks is supported.
- Five figure styles included: Old-style proportional, lining proportional, tabular old-style, tabular lining, and small-caps lining. All in both upright and italic styles.
- An expanded range of currency symbols.
- Special tabular versions of punctuation and currency symbols for table use with tabular figures.
Playfair 2.1 is published under the SIL Open Font License Version 1.1, granting you license to use the fonts free of charge, and enables you to extend & modify the family should you wish to. The complete source-files are available in this repository.
Playfair 2.1 supports the following languages Acheron, Achinese, Achuar-Shiwiar, Afar, Afrikaans, Aguaruna, Amahuaca, Amarakaeri, Amis, Andaandi, Dongolawi, Anuta, Ao, Naga, Apinayé, Aragonese, Arbëreshë Albanian, Arvanitika Albanian, Asháninka, Ashéninka Perené, Asu (Tanzania), Atayal, Balinese, Bari, Basque, Batak Dairi, Batak Karo, Batak Mandailing, Batak Simalungun, Batak Toba, Bemba (Zambia), Bena (Tanzania), Bikol, Bini, Bislama, Borana-Arsi-Guji, Oromo, Bosnian, Breton, Buginese, Candoshi-Shapra, Caquinte, Caribbean Hindustani, Cashibo-Cacataibo, Cashinahua, Catalan, Cebuano, Central Aymara, Central Kurdish, Chachi, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chiga, Chiltepec Chinantec, Chokwe, Chuukese, Cimbrian, Cofán, Congo Swahili, Cook Islands Māori, Cornish, Corsican, Creek, Crimean Tatar, Croatian, Czech,Danish, Dehu, Dimli, Dutch, Eastern Abnaki, Eastern Arrernte, Eastern Oromo, Embu, English, Ese Ejja, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Friulian, Gagauz, Galician, Ganda, Garifuna, Ga’anda, German, Gheg, Albanian, Gilbertese, Gooniyandi, Guadeloupean Creole French, Gusii, Haitian, Hani, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Ho-Chunk, Hopi, Huastec, Hungarian, Hän, Icelandic, Iloko, Inari, Sami, Indonesian, Irish, Istro, Romanian, Italian, Ixcatlán Mazatec, Jamaican Creole English, Japanese, Javanese, Jola-Fonyi, K’iche’, Kabuverdianu, Kaingang, Kala, Lagaw, Ya, Kalaallisut, Kalenjin, Kamba (Kenya), Kaonde, Kaqchikel, Kara-Kalpak, Karelian, Kashubian, Kekchí, Kenzi,, Mattokki, Khasi, Kikuyu, Kimbundu, Kinyarwanda, Kirmanjki, Kituba (DRC), Kongo, Konzo, Kuanyama, Kven Finnish, Kölsch, Ladin, Ladino, Lakota, Latgalian, Latin, Ligurian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low German, Lower Sorbian, Lozi, Luba-Lulua, Lule Sami, Luo (Kenya and Tanzania), Luxembourgish, Macedo-Romanian, Makhuwa, Makhuwa-Meetto, Makonde, Makwe, Malagasy, Malaysian, Maltese, Manx, Maore Comorian, Maori, Mapudungun, Marshallese, Matsés, Mauritian Creole, Meriam Mir, Meru, Mezquital, Otomi, Minangkabau, Mirandese, Mohawk, Montagnais, Montenegrin, Munsee, Murrinh-Patha, Muslim Tat, Mwani, Mískito, Naga Pidgin, Ndonga, Neapolitan, Ngazidja Comorian, Niuean, Nobiin, Nomatsiguenga, North Azerbaijani, North Marquesan, North Ndebele, Northern Kurdish, Northern Qiandong Miao, Northern Sami, Northern Uzbek, Norwegian, Nyanja, Nyankole, Occitan, Ojitlán Chinantec, Orma, Oroqen, Otuho, Palauan, Paluan, Pampanga, Papantla Totonac, Papiamento, Paraguayan Guaraní, Pedi, Picard, Pichis Ashéninka, Piemontese, Pijin, Pintupi-Luritja, Pipil, Pite Sami, Pohnpeian, Polish, Portuguese, Potawatomi, Purepecha, Páez, Quechua, Romanian, Romansh, Rotokas, Rundi, Rwa, Samburu, Samoan, Sango, Sangu (Tanzania), Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Secoya, Sena, Serbian, Seri, Seselwa Creole French, Shambala, Shawnee, Shipibo-Conibo, Shona, Shuar, Sicilian, Silesian, Skolt Sami, Slovak, Slovenian, Soga, Somali, Soninke, South, Azerbaijani, South Marquesan, South Ndebele, Southern Aymara, Southern Qiandong Miao, Southern Sami, Southern Sotho, Spanish, Sranan Tongo, Standard Estonian, Standard Latvian, Standard Malay, Sundanese, Swahili, Swati, Swedish, Swiss German, Tagalog, Tahitian, Taita, Talysh, Tedim, Chin, Teso, Tetum, Tetun Dili, Tiv, Toba, Tok, Pisin, Tokelau, Tonga (Tonga Islands), Tonga (Zambia), Tosk Albanian, Totontepec Mixe, Tsakhur, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen, Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Uab, Meto, Umbundu, Ume Sami, Upper Guinea Crioulo, Upper Sorbian, Venetian, Veps, Vietnamese, Võro, Wallisian, Walloon, Walser, Wangaaybuwan-Ngiyambaa, Waorani, Waray (Philippines), Warlpiri, Wayuu, Welsh, West Central Oromo, Western Abnaki, Western Frisian, Wik-Mungkan, Wiradjuri, Wolof, Xavánte, Xhosa, Yanesha’, Yao, Yapese, Yindjibarndi, Yucateco, Zapotec, Zulu, Zuni, and Záparo.
Playfair 2.1 supports the following Cyrillic-script languages Abaza, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Chinese Buriat, Crimean Tatar, Dungan, Erzya, Halh Mongolian, Kalmyk, Karachay-Balkar, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Kumyk, Macedonian, Moksha, Mongolian Buriat, Montenegrin, Nogai, Russian, Russian Buriat, Rusyn, Serbian, Tatar, Tuvinian, and Ukrainian.
Playfair 2.1 is designed by Claus Eggers Sørensen in 2005–2023, and is published under the SIL Open Font License Version 1.1.