Parnaso is a serif typeface inspired by the 19th-century revivals of Old Style Romans which were a counter-response to the Modern style of Didot and Bodoni. With high contrast and sharp details, Parnaso shines as a display typeface in editorial or advertising work. Rather than staying faithful to the standard type family structure, with a regular progression of weights and widths, Parnaso comes in a set of eight assorted styles of various weights and widths that can be combined together or used independently. Parnaso is available in three widths and four weights, with a companion Italic for the Regular style.
Parnaso 2.0
A new version of Parnaso with additional weights, three optical sizes and a mono-spaced will be published later this here, in the meanwhile we will be making some of these new styles in Early Version mode. Meaning that, while the fonts are finished they are still subject to change.
Specimens
Parnaso 2.0 — Nov. 2022
Hairline: 6 weights + Italics
Display: 6 weights + Italics
Standard: 6 weights + Italics
Small: 6 weights + Italics
Petit: 6 weights + Italics
Condensed: 4 Styles
Mono: 2 Styles
Version 1.0 — 2019
Regular, Regular Italic, Medium Condensed, Bold, Bold Condensed, Bold X Condensed, Black, Black Condensed
Parnaso Monos — 2021
Display Quad, Standard Dual, Small Dual, Petit Mono
Parnaso brings up to date the first generation of revivals that occurred by the end of the 19th century when typefoundries started to showcase their own rejuvenated versions of the so-called Old Style Roman types. This was a reaction against the work of Firmin Didot & Bodoni and their Modern type model, that completely dominated the typographic scene at the time and that was considered unreadable or boring by some printers. These new typefaces were often presented as Antiqua, Ancienne Romain or Elzévirs (a frenchified form of the Dutch ‘Elsevier’).
To design Parnaso, I started by looking at the “Série XVIIe Siècle «Elzévier»” showed in the Fonderie Gustave Mayeur’s 1894 and 1912 editions of the Spécimen-album of the Fonderie Gve Mayeur, Allainguillaume&cie, succrs. The Roman and the Italic styles are both directly based on that particular face but with some tweaks of my own, like a completely different set of numerals. Other typefaces that I studied while working on Parnaso include some presented in the Catalogo Fundição Tipográfica Gini, Manuel Guedes Lda. (Lisboa, 1938).
Rather than staying faithful to the standard type family structure, with a regular progression of weights and widths, Parnaso comes in a set of eight assorted styles of various weights and widths that can be combined together or used independently. Hence, the design of the bolder and narrower styles is mostly a result of my own imagination than a straightforward interpretation of any other typeface. With its proportions, high contrast and numerous styles, Parnaso has been conceived to fulfil the needs of contemporary magazine and advertising design. Its capital letters, with their sturdy proportions, retains a certain spirit and geometry of the Didot model but with shorter and wedge-shaped serifs. The lowercase letters are more condensed and closely fitted, offering a very unique style and a distinctive type color. The italic is vivid and generous with a great amount of angle variation and that ‘je ne sais quoi’ inherited from classical French baroque italics. Unlike the original Mayeur’s typeface Parnaso comes with lining figures as default but a set of old styles figures is also included. Both exist in proportional and tabular widths. All fonts come with some alternates, arrows and ornaments. The Italic style also features an extra set of titling swash capitals.
Designed by Mário Feliciano, 2015 — 2019
OpenType Features:
Case-Sensitive Forms
Standard Ligatures
Proportional Lining Figures
Proportional Oldstyle Figures
Tabular Lining Figures
Tabular Oldstyle Figures
Numerators
Denominators
Fractions
Ordinals
Stylistic Alternates
Inferiors
Superiors