Bery Roman
TYPE BY · Fred Smeijers · 2012
A revival of 18th-century French stencil letters by Fred Smeijers, drawn from the stencil set Jean Gabriel Bery supplied to Benjamin Franklin in 1781.
About
Designed by Fred Smeijers and part of TYPE BY's Stencil Fonts Series, it reconstructs the roman letters of Paris stencil maker Jean Gabriel Bery, whose work blends calligraphic, engraved and typographic sensibilities characteristic of the French stencil tradition. Smeijers recognised the purely typographic potential in Bery's originals, producing a single style that works at both text and display sizes. True to the historical source, not every glyph carries a stencil break, reflecting the period view that breaks should be as few and inconspicuous as possible.
Classification
Bery Roman is a stencil typeface reviving 18th-century French stencil letters, with calligraphic, engraved and typographic qualities that place it firmly in the display category despite its versatility for text settings.