Dewey Decimal
Monokrom · Frode Helland · 2023
A six-style family derived from the Friden Justowriter's Documentary typeface, tracing a lineage through Excelsior back to nineteenth-century Ionic serifs.
About
Frode Helland draws on Documentary, a proportional typewriter font for the Friden Justowriter, itself descended from Chauncey Griffith's 1931 Excelsior and its low-contrast Didone tradition. The family runs across three weights with matching italics, preserving Documentary's characteristic open counters and the soaring roof of the lowercase 'a' while bringing contemporary detailing and technical scope. Vietnamese is included alongside Monokrom's standard character set, extending coverage to over 200 languages.
Classification
Rooted in the Neo-classical Didone tradition via Excelsior and its low-contrast Ionic/Clarendon interpretations, adapted through a proportional typewriter source (Friden Documentary) with large x-height, open counters and wide apertures.