Saol
Schick Toikka · Florian Schick, Lauri Toikka
A Victorian-old-style serif system across Display, Standard and Text optical sizes, with flamboyant swash italic and an additional Mono cut.
About
Saol interprets late-1800s American Victorian serifs (Ronaldson 1884, Caxton Old Style 1889, West Old Style 1892) for present-day use, keeping the eccentric spirit of its sources. Diagonal strokes cross conventional boundaries (A, M, W, k, y), shoulders are unusually taut (h, n, u) and razor-edge details abound (E, G, R, T, t). The italic is particularly flamboyant, looping and undulating at a fairly deep slant, narrower than the roman but comparable in colour for harmonious mixing within a line. Borrowing wisdom from metal type's size-specific reality, Saol comes in three optical sizes: Display has delicate hairlines and maximum contrast, Standard is intended for medium use, and Text is optimised for smaller sizes with modest contrast. A Monospaced style adds another option for curious typography.
Classification
Schick Toikka cite three American Victorian serifs as Saol's reference points: Ronaldson (MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan, 1884), Caxton Old Style (Marder, Luse & Co, 1889) and West Old Style (Barnhart Brothers & Spindler, 1892), each with old-style structure but exaggerated terminals, thin hairlines and truncated descenders.