For many people, there are a handful of fonts that are the workhorses. You’ve got your grotesk something, your didone, your booktext standby, maybe a couple slabs. Then there are those typefaces that transcend everything and pop up everywhere. I have a few of specimens that I like, but nothing compares to the flexibility+energy of Clarendon. It is completely full of character without ever running towards Cooper Black silliness. It is the hardest working serif I know. I constantly find it in textbooks, magazines, anything that needs beautiful numbers, and anywhere that requires legibility and a little zest. Along with Hetchins bicycles, it may be one of the best things to come out of England, ever.

And now, Canada Type has gone and made it even better. They’ve added small caps, more ligatures, they retooled the italic and re-cut a few letters for increased legibility. The traditional lowercase a is much like the Helvetica uppercase R for me—it sticks out and demands more attention than it should compared to its neighbors. Canada Type took off its extra long ascending serif and created a much more balanced letter. The result is a typeface that is ready for heavy duty into our latest century. I am excited to use it, and I think I know just the job to make sure I get it sooner rather than later.

Clarendon Text