Scotus Sans is a low-contrast sanserif family available in a wide range of weights and styles. It performs excellently for long reading text in printing and on web pages, as well as on any kind of screen and device. Its name and its overall proportions come from a highly successful roman type which first appeared in the printing office of Octavianus Scotus, in Venice in 1481 – about ten years after Nicolas Jenson’s masterful roman type.
Scotus Sans
Font info
Supported languages
Afrikaans, Albanian, Asu, Basque, Bemba, Bena, Breton, Catalan, Chiga, Colognian, Cornish, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Filipino, Finnish, French, Friulian, Galician, Ganda, German, Gusii, Hungarian, Icelandic, Inari Sami, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jola-Fonyi, Kabuverdianu, Kalenjin, Kinyarwanda, Latvian, Lithuanian, Lower Sorbian, Luo, Luxembourgish, Luyia, Machame, Makhuwa-Meetto, Makonde, Malagasy, Maltese, Manx, Morisyen, Northern Sami, North Ndebele, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Nyankole, Oromo, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Romanian, Romansh, Rombo, Rundi, Rwa, Samburu, Sango, Sangu, Scottish Gaelic, Sena, Serbian, Shambala, Shona, Slovak, Slovenian, Soga, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Swiss German, Taita, Teso, Turkish, Upper Sorbian, Uzbek (Latin), Volapük, Vunjo, Welsh, Western Frisian, Zulu
Production years
2021-2024
Additional info
Among the many imitations of Jenson’s roman available at the time, the roman used by Octavianus Scotus achieved the greatest commercial success. In fact, it was used by more than 100 printers in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. Nonetheless, Scotus Sans is not a revival of a 15th-century roman; it is a new sans based on the skeleton of the original roman and embodies ‘simplicity of form which does not reject traditional forms’ while maintaining ‘clarity and readability’.
Galli, Olocco and Perondi designed Scotus Sans following in the footsteps of early 20th-century milestones such as Edward Johnston’s typeface for the London Underground and notably Monotype Sans Serif no. 231 (later known as Gill Sans), in which the designer tried ‘to work out the norm of plain letters’. But unlike Johnston and Gill, they focused on a specific model and studied the original Scotus roman from a number of books. Through a process of rationalisation and simplification, the rough printed marks of Scotus roman were forged into a digital sanserif ranging from thin to black, from compressed to expanded. They also added a matching italic to the roman: with a 10° angle and slightly condensed letterforms, it has a personality of its own. The result is Scotus Sans, an extensive humanistic sanserif family that looks sleekly contemporary and classical at the same time.
[The quotes are from Eric Gill, An Essay on Typography, 1931.]
Styles
Compressed Thin, Compressed Thin Italic, Compressed Light, Compressed Light Italic, Compressed Book, Compressed Book Italic, Compressed Regular, Compressed Regular Italic, Compressed Medium, Compressed Medium Italic, Compressed SemiBold, Compressed SemiBold Italic, Compressed Bold, Compressed Bold Italic, Compressed ExtraBold, Compressed ExtraBold Italic, Compressed Black, Compressed Black Italic, Condensed Thin, Condensed Thin Italic, Condensed Light, Condensed Light Italic, Condensed Book, Condensed Book Italic, Condensed Regular, Condensed Regular Italic, Condensed Medium, Condensed Medium Italic, Condensed SemiBold, Condensed SemiBold Italic, Condensed Bold, Condensed Bold Italic, Condensed ExtraBold, Condensed ExtraBold Italic, Condensed Black, Condensed Black Italic, Thin, Thin Italic, Light, Light Italic, Book, Book Italic, Regular, Regular Italic, Medium, Medium Italic, SemiBold, SemiBold Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, ExtraBold, ExtraBold Italic, Black, Black Italic, SemiExtended Thin, SemiExtended Thin Italic, SemiExtended Light, SemiExtended Light Italic, SemiExtended Book, SemiExtended Book Italic, SemiExtended Regular, SemiExtended Regular Italic, SemiExtended Medium, SemiExtended Medium Italic, SemiExtended SemiBold, SemiExtended SemiBold Italic, SemiExtended Bold, SemiExtended Bold Italic, SemiExtended ExtraBold, SemiExtended ExtraBold Italic, SemiExtended Black, SemiExtended Black Italic, Extended Thin, Extended Thin Italic, Extended Light, Extended Light Italic, Extended Book, Extended Book Italic, Extended Regular, Extended Regular Italic, Extended Medium, Extended Medium Italic, Extended SemiBold, Extended SemiBold Italic, Extended Bold, Extended Bold Italic, Extended ExtraBold, Extended ExtraBold Italic, Extended Black, Extended Black Italic
OpenType Features
Tabular figures
Oldstyle figures
Tabular oldstyle figures
Superscript and subscript
Small caps
Alternative @ (SS 01)
Black circled figures (SS 02)
White circled figures (SS 03)
Small figures (SS 04)
Specimen
Rental options
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