Typeface Design for a Fixed-Width Font System
One monospace system, three fixed widths
Elma is a fixed-width type system by Philipp Neumeyer (TypeMates, 2022) comprising two subfamilies: Elma Mono, using a single fixed width, and Elma Trio, using three fixed widths to mock conventional proportional spacing. Both are built on a compact Neo Grotesque base with deliberate broken-curve details—abrupt direction changes that blend in at small sizes and stand out at large ones. Each subfamily ships in five weights with both a 16° Italic and a 16° Slanted, totalling 15 styles per family and more than 820 glyphs per style.
Insights
- Elma Trio uses three distinct fixed widths rather than one, positioning itself as a deliberate challenge to conventional proportional type logic.
- The broken-curves construction—deliberate rough direction changes—is designed to blend in at small sizes while remaining expressive at display scales.
- The Italic and Slanted are formally distinct: the Slanted is a straightforwardly sloped Neo-Grotesque, while the Italic introduces rotation, angle variation, and upright details simultaneously.
- Cyrillic support was developed with consulting from Daria Cohen, Anya Danilova, Jovana Jocic, Ilya Ruderman, and Yury Ostromentsky, earning a 1st-place Granshan Award in the multiscript category for 2023/2024.
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