Romain 20

Eight years to revive a century-old French elzevir

Romain 20 is Alice Savoie's contemporary revival of Romain Vingtième siècle, a French elzevir originally distributed by Fonderie Allainguillaume at the turn of the twentieth century. Savoie discovered the typeface in a 1902 issue of La fonderie typographique and spent eight years developing the family before its 2020 release. The design pairs soft bowl terminals with sharp bracketed serifs, blending French publishing tradition with Art Nouveau character. The family began as roman and italic text cuts, later expanded with bold and bold italic styles.

Set in Romain 20

Insights

The project originated from a 1902 journal discovery, not a commission.
Text weights were optimised for body setting while the bold was developed with display use in mind.
The italic preserves generous proportions specifically to remain readable in continuous text.
Bold and bold italic were added after the initial roman and italic revival to broaden versatility.