A reverse-contrast slab serif in the Italienne tradition, drawing on 19th-century wood type heritage with contemporary proportions and a full set of independently drawn italics across nine weights.
About
Cattivo reinterprets the Italienne genre with moderated horizontal stress, making it more legible and evenly textured than most period revivals while retaining the frontier character of display wood type. Nine weights from Thin to Black each carry genuine italics with a handwriting-inspired construction, a rarity for this genre, extending the family's usefulness into short body text settings. Around 700 glyphs include oldstyle and lining figures in multiple formats, arrows, circled and boxed numerals, and broad Latin Extended language support.
Classification
Cattivo belongs to the Italienne tradition of reverse-contrast slab serifs, where horizontal strokes are bold and verticals are relatively thin, rooted in early 19th-century wood type display faces.