Appennino is a bold, low-contrast, script typeface. Like AM Majella, all the letters are joined up. However, unlike Majella, Appennino is not entirely geometric and its letters are fully cursive.
Appennino
Released as a wood type by Xilografia di Verona around 1938, Appennino features a unique blend of geometric and vernacular forms. It combines round and straight strokes with sharp corners, particularly in the capitals. Most uppercase and lowercase letters have straight diagonal upper strokes rather than curved ones (see M, N, m, n for example), and thereby match the virtual pen angle of the script.
Courtesy Archivio Luca Lattuga
Courtesy Archivio Enrico Tallone – Archives of Styles
‘Many letters of the original model relied on heavy diagonal cuts, which sometimes made the letter feel awkward and uneven’ say designers Valentina Casali and Marco Goran Romano. ‘For the AM Appennino digital revival we refined the design to improve legibility. As all the joining strokes were the same length and created gaps in certain letter combinations, we therefore modified their lengths to achieve even spacing. Some letters, such as b, k, r, s, z, L, and Q, required a complete redesign for them to work in the digital environment and several others were also noticeably rough. Ultimately, we addressed the inconsistencies in weight and contrast derived from the rough craftwork.’
AM Appennino provides some useful OpenType features, including initial and final forms, as well as an uppercase stylistic set designed for all-caps settings.
