Aosta has several unusual features, including bulbous lowercase terminals (untypical of sans serifs) and notable variations in the widths of lowercase letters: narrow n, m, s and wide circular letters (apart from c and e which are unusually narrow). However, Aosta’s most striking feature is the eccentric design of the capitals. They are much taller than ascenders and some of them also sit below the baseline (see D, P and Z). They sometimes display just one descending stroke (A, M, N and R) and unusual curves for A and V are also noteworthy.

Courtesy of Archivio Enrico Tallone – Archives of Styles

Originally released as a wood type by Xilografia di Verona shortly before World War 2, Aosta was available with a variety of ligatures for setting titles and logos. 

Courtesy Archivio Luca Lattuga

Compared to the original model, the AM Aosta digital revival has smaller ascenders and descenders and the capitals have also been slightly reduced to improve usability. Designers Stefano Baldassari and James D. Barranger also made numerous optical adjustments and improved the original letter construction, which was sometimes rather poor. Finally, there are three dedicated stylistic sets that offer underlined, overlined, and combined underlined–overlined letterforms. A selection of uppercase glyphs has been designed specifically to connect with the horizontal strokes, extending the system to display-oriented use.