Capitaine

Capitaine is a good-humoured, chunky slab serif based on the Adtype Series, as found on pages 572 to 575 in the American Specimen Book of Type Styles (American Type Founders, 1912).

After frequently revisiting and admiring this charming design over the past couple of years, we simply could not resist bringing it back to life. Its carefree personality with rounded, slightly irregular features is a welcome alternative for all the sharp, regimented display serif typefaces available. The energetic, surprisingly calligraphic italics are the perfect foil for the mellow yet confident romans. While our primary goal was to create a useful, contemporary type family, we aimed to capture as much of the original’s quirky attributes as possible. Capitaine is like a grown-up who doesn’t try too hard to look cool nor perfect, and that is perfectly fine.

Our interpretation of the Adtype Series is named after its designer William F. Capitain. We wish to extend our gratitude to the Letterform Archive for helping us with our research and providing reference materials.