Untitled Case

A forgotten 1914 Garamond, rediscovered by accident

Garalda is a Latin type family designed by Xavier Dupré, released in 2016, drawing on a rare early-twentieth-century Garamond variant—likely the Ollière Garamond of 1914—rediscovered by chance. Dupré deliberately worked from low-resolution scans to give himself freedom to experiment rather than faithfully revive. The result is a humanist slab serif with rectangular serifs, mixed angles and curves, swashes drawn from multiple historic Garamonds, and a full ligature set suited to both long-form text and display use. The family ships in eight styles across four weights with Latin script support.

Set in Garalda

Insights

Dupré chose low-resolution source scans intentionally, treating reduced fidelity as creative latitude to remix rather than restore.
Garalda combines Garamond references with rectangular slab serifs.
Italic swashes draw from multiple distinct historic Garamonds, not solely the Tory-Garamond source, with curves deliberately broken for visual tension.
The *-s ligature produces a cursive 's' formation rather than merely a flowing slant, a structural distinction from conventional italic treatment.