Typeface Design for Bara Display
From 16th-century metal type to optical-size system
Bara Display is a loose interpretation of the Schefferletter (Enschedé English-bodied Roman No. 6), hand-set by Bram de Does in 1992 for an edition of The Steadfast Tin Soldier, a historical typeface likely dating to the early 16th century. Designed by Nikola Djurek and released by Typotheque in 2016, it is not a historical revival but a contemporary reinterpretation of Dutch Golden Age metal type. The Display optical size sits within a four-size family (Caption, Text, Display, Grande) differentiated by stroke contrast and spacing, making the system practical across typographic scales.
Set in Bara Display
Insights
- The source typeface was hand-set by Bram de Does in 1992 from the Schefferletter held by Joh. Enschedé en Zonen, Haarlem, whose origins are unclear but likely date to the early 16th century.
- Optical sizes differ primarily in thick-to-thin stroke variation and spacing.
- Each weight includes nine numeral variants—proportional old-style (default), lining, tabular lining, tabular old-style, small caps, superior, inferior, circled, and circled inverted—with defaults selectable at license time inside the font files.
- Characteristic details such as the abruptly terminated strokes on 'e' and 'c' are deliberate retentions from the original metal type.
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