An independent type foundrySixty glyphs, one nervous system

Letters that argue back.

Counterpunch draws retail typefaces and hints them until they hold their position at nine pixels. Everything below is set in the faces it sells. Move through the field, then read on.

Drawn in Sofia and Rotterdam

Four faces, four arguments.

The collection, set in itself

01Humanist serif, weathered contrast

Erode

A serif that looks rained on. The contrast is soft because certainty is soft. Set it large and it argues; set it small and it agrees.

Designer
Indian Type Foundry
Cut
Variable, wght 300 to 700
Styles
Roman and Italic, one continuous weight axis
Weights
Light 300Regular 400Medium 500Semibold 600Bold 700
Waterfall
16The counter is where a letter keeps its breath.
20The counter is where a letter keeps its breath.
24The counter is where a letter keeps its breath.
30The counter is where a letter keeps its breath.
38The counter is where a letter keeps its breath.
Live axesErode ships one variable axis: weight. No width, no optical size, so we show none.
Handgloves
Weightwght, a real axis
400
Trackingletter-spacing, not an axis
+0.000
02High-contrast editorial serif

Ranade

Thin hairlines, fat stems, and an opinion about both. Ranade is the face that wears the good coat to the meeting and lets the coat do the talking.

Designer
Indian Type Foundry
Cut
Thin 100 to Bold 700
Styles
Roman and Italic, five weights
Weights
Thin 100Light 300Regular 400Medium 500Bold 700
Waterfall
16A masthead is a promise you have to keep every morning.
20A masthead is a promise you have to keep every morning.
24A masthead is a promise you have to keep every morning.
30A masthead is a promise you have to keep every morning.
38A masthead is a promise you have to keep every morning.
03Neo-grotesque sans, workhorse build

Synonym

No jewellery, no accent, no excuses. Synonym is the face you reach for when the interface has to work at 13 pixels on a bad phone in bright sun.

Designer
Indian Type Foundry
Cut
Extralight 200 to Bold 700
Styles
Roman only, six weights, tabular figures
Weights
Extralight 200Regular 400Medium 500Semibold 600Bold 700
Waterfall
16Set the label, ship the build, read it back at noon outside.
20Set the label, ship the build, read it back at noon outside.
24Set the label, ship the build, read it back at noon outside.
30Set the label, ship the build, read it back at noon outside.
38Set the label, ship the build, read it back at noon outside.
04Geometric sans, rounded terminals

Pally

The corners are rounded on purpose, not because someone was afraid of an edge. Pally is friendly the way a good bartender is friendly: quickly, and then it leaves you alone.

Designer
Indian Type Foundry
Cut
Regular 400 to Bold 700
Styles
Roman, three weights, warm corners
Weights
Regular 400Medium 500Bold 700
Waterfall
16Say hello, keep the receipt, come back on a Tuesday.
20Say hello, keep the receipt, come back on a Tuesday.
24Say hello, keep the receipt, come back on a Tuesday.
30Say hello, keep the receipt, come back on a Tuesday.
38Say hello, keep the receipt, come back on a Tuesday.

Type a word. Leave with a poster.

Every visitor gets to cut their own specimen. Type below, pick a face or let the dice pick, and take the artwork with you. The download is exactly what you see, at print resolution.

Enter a word, up to sixteen letters. The layout fits it for you.

Live specimenErode · 1000×1250 at 2×

The same letters, out in the weather.

Erode, in the wild
Meridian, a festival of slow music

Three nights of drone, choir, and one cello.

Set in Erode Bold ItalicReykjavik, October
Saturday, weeklySection A
Ranade, in the wild
The Broadsheet

A weekly that still believes in the front page.

Set in Ranade Thin and BoldIssue No. 214
Synonym, in the wild
Ledger, a bank you can read

Numbers that line up so the panic does not.

Set in Synonym, tabular figures oniOS and web

Buy the letters, not a lawsuit.

LicenceDesktopWebApp and games
One person, one machineYou, a laptop, and a deadline.4560120
A small studio, up to 10The whole floor, plus the intern.180240480
A brand at scaleAirports, apps, and one very large sign.6409001,900

EUR, one-time. No subscription, because a font is not a streaming service.

  1. Prices are per family. Buy the whole family and the italic is on the house.
  2. Web licences are by pageview band, not a monthly hostage situation.
  3. Yes, you can use it on a boat. Yes, that includes a superyacht. Especially a superyacht.
  4. No licence needed to read this sentence, though we appreciate that you did.

Full disclosure. Counterpunch is a design fiction. The faces on this page are real, free releases (OFL and Fontshare), credited in the colophon. Nothing here charges your card.

Letters that argue back

Drawing a letter is the romantic part. You chase a curve for a week, you fight the same bowl of a lowercase a until it stops looking like a mistake and starts looking like a decision. Everyone wants to talk about that part.

Hinting is the part nobody photographs. It is the work of telling a curve how to behave when it is only nine pixels tall and the screen has no patience. A face is not finished when it looks good at 300 point. It is finished when it survives a spreadsheet.

We draw slowly and hint stubbornly. Between the two, a letter learns to hold its position: generous when it has room, disciplined when it does not. That argument, curve against grid, is the whole job.

A typeface is a long argument about the shape of a sound, and the best ones never quite concede.from the Counterpunch house notes

Commission the argument.

the letters we fight first

Draw a face from nothing

Four to nine months

A retail family is a season of your brand's voice. We start with the awkward letters (a, g, and the ampersand), because if those work the rest will follow. You get progress every fortnight, not a reveal at the end.

From EUR 18,000. Half up front, the rest when the italic behaves.

the scripts you gain

Extend a family you own

Six to twelve weeks per script

Cyrillic, Greek, a heavier display cut, a set of real small caps. We match the drawing you already have rather than improvise a new one. Bring the source, keep the licence, gain a script.

From EUR 4,200 per script. We will tell you if you do not need it.