Industry: Design

Folktails

Reviving a forgotten Vietnamese printing typeface from the early 1900s

Folktails is a flare serif typeface rooted in a lost, unknown typeface widely used in Vietnamese printing during the early 1900s. Designer Thai Duy Pham modernized those historical letterforms to evoke a Vietnamese editorial spirit—mysterious yet inviting. The family spans 14 styles from Thin to Bold with true italics, unified in a single variable font file with Weight and Italic axes.

Set in Folktails

Insights

Signature 'tail-like' terminals—most visible in 'a', 'f', and 's'—directly inspired the typeface's name as a pun on folktales.
Art Nouveau influence appears specifically in the middle bars of 'E' and 'F', lending those letters a more organic structure.
Italics are slanted at a precise 10° angle across all styles.
Fine, sharp serifs and tight tracking complement the ornate terminals; intricate details are intended to read at large display sizes.