Didot Elder is the first revival of a typeface by Pierre Didot the Elder, whose family has long been recognized for many generations as France’s leading publisher, printer, and punchcutter, with many notable patrons, including the French Monarchy. With its elegant and high-contrast forms Didot Elder perfectly reflects neoclassical principles, while presenting unique features drawn with an unprecedented sharpness.
Admired for the impeccable quality of their publications, the Didots are also celebrated for the design of a typeface bearing their name, which was exclusively used on their press. The Didot typeface is known to have an exclusively vertical axis, strong strokes contrast, and hairline serifs with no bracketing, as were its variants, until François Rappo developed Didot Elder based on a specimen published in 1819. Rappo’s version presents asymmetrical serifs, with regular and bracket-serif style happening simultaneously on certain letters and arrow-like serifs, on the letters “C,” “G,” “S,” and “s,” which were developed with the aim of accomplishing a very precise and authentic revival of the specimen.
Didot Elder 6 styles
Didot Elder Display 1 style
Case Sensitive Forms
All Caps [cpsp]
This function formats the text in uppercase and adjusts spacing between all capital letters. It also applies the ‘Case Sensitive Forms’ feature which replaces certain characters with alternates that are better suited for all capital text, especially related to punctuation.
«Optimo»
(4−7+8)
(){}‹›«»-–—
+±÷−=≠¬
«Optimo»
(4−7+8)
(){}‹›«»-–—
+±÷−=≠¬
Contextual Alternates
Contextual Alternates [calt]
This feature adapts the position of a glyph after its surrounding context. For instance, a dash placed between two uppercase letters or numbers will be replaced by an uppercase version of the dash, slightly higher. This feature is usually active by default in Adobe applications.
Contextual Alternates
[calt]
This feature adapts the position of a glyph after its surrounding context. This feature is usually active by default in Adobe applications.
Tabular Lining Figures
Tabular Lining Figures [tnum–lnum]
Based on the proportions of the capitals, lining figures have an invariable height. With the combination of the tabular spacing format, the width of each numeral is uniformized. This feature is useful when numerals need to all lined up. It facilitates the reading of numbers set within columns or tables. As some applications don’t have access to this feature, proportional figures are set as the default choice.
0123456789
0123456789
Proportional Oldstyle Figures
Proportional Oldstyle Figures [pnum–onum]
Based on the design of the lowercase, oldstyle figures have varying ascenders and descenders. Like most of the letters, each number has an appropriate width based on its shape. The combination of oldstyle figures with proportional setting generate numerals perfectly adapted for text.
Tabular Oldstyle Figures
Tabular Oldstyle Figures [tnum–onum]
Based on the design of the lowercase, oldstyle figures have varying ascenders and descenders. With the combination of the tabular spacing format, the width of each numeral is uniformized. This feature is useful when numerals need to all lined up. It facilitates the reading of numbers set within columns or tables.
Fractions
Fractions [frac]
With this feature, any numbers separated by a slash will automatically turn into a fraction. To fit in fraction configuration, numerals have been designed smaller and their weights have been adjusted to suit the typeface.
3/4 3/8 5/8 7/8
3/4 3/8 5/8 7/8
Ordinals
Ordinals [ordn]
This feature replaces any letter following a numeral with its matching superior letters. Spanish, Portuguese and Italian language uses the feminine and masculine ordinal indicators such as ‘a’ for for 1º, 1ª. Ordinals are designed to match the weight of the typeface.
Numerators
Numerators [numr]
This feature substitutes glyphs with their matching smaller alternates. The numerators are the same glyphs that are used to create fractions, their vertical position remains within the capital letters height. These glyphs are reduced in size and designed slightly heavier to keep them consistent with the rest of the font.
Denominators
Denominators [dnom]
This feature substitutes glyphs with their matching smaller alternates and low position glyphs. The denominators are the same glyphs that are used to create fractions, their vertical position remains within the base line. These glyphs are reduced in size and designed slightly heavier to keep them consistent with the rest of the font.
Superscript/Superiors
Superscript / Superiors [sups]
This feature substitutes glyphs with their matching smaller alternates which are set slightly above the height of the capital letters. These glyphs are reduced in size and designed slightly heavier to keep them consistent with the rest of the font.
Habcdefghijklm
Hnopqrstuvwxyz
Habcdefghijklm
Hnopqrstuvwxyz
Standard Ligatures
Standard Ligatures [liga]
Standard ligatures replaces a sequence of characters with a single ligature glyph, they are designed to improve kerning and readability of certain letter pairs.