Industry: Design

Variable Typeface Design for Editorial Publishing

One skeleton, two contrast levels, 20 styles — consolidated into two variable fonts

Aneto and Aneto Text are two related serif families sharing a common skeleton but differentiated by letter contrast to serve distinct editorial roles — Aneto for headings, callouts, and subheads; Aneto Text for body copy down to captions. Designed by Veronika Burian and José Scaglione, the family took over three years to complete. The foundry attributes better readability to a taller x-height and enlarged counters, while shortened ascenders and descenders are intended to increase line density. All 20 static styles across both subfamilies are consolidated into two variable fonts with weight and optical-size axes. Aneto is the third entry in a trilogy with Catalpa and Belarius, conceived as a combined editorial suite.

Set in Aneto Variable

Insights

The shared skeleton between Aneto and Aneto Text makes letter contrast alone the differentiator between display and text roles.
The foundry designed shortened ascenders and descenders to increase line density, balanced against a taller x-height and enlarged counters intended to aid readability.
Distinctive details such as the wedged oblique connection on the 'R' and the internal curve of the lowercase 'f' give Aneto a sharper voice relative to its text companion.
Consolidating 20 static styles into two variable files is explicitly framed by the foundry as a solution to file-size reduction without sacrificing style range.