Romain du Roi
Newglyph · Ian Party
Ian Party's decades-long engagement with the 1692 Romain du Roi has produced a 108-style variable family with axes for weight, width and contrast, split between a text companion and a high-contrast headline face called Le Grand.
About
Commissioned by Louis XIV and designed by the Bignon Commission, the original Romain du Roi was among the first rationalist typefaces; Party's version honours that geometric rigour while pushing it toward something distinctly contemporary. Distinguishing details include double serifs on lowercase letters such as 'b', 'd', 'h' and 'k', crescent-shaped round forms and a characteristically adorned lowercase 'l'. The family spans 108 styles across variable weight, width and contrast axes, with small caps, alternates and a sculptural headline sub-family, Le Grand, designed for high-contrast display use.
Classification
Rooted in the Romain du Roi of 1692, one of the earliest rationalist serifs, Ian Party's interpretation sits firmly in the transitional category with its geometric axis, high contrast, and distinctive double serifs drawn from Enlightenment design principles.