Playfair Display

Playfair Display takes its cues from the late eighteenth century, when pointed steel pens replaced the broad nib and letterforms responded with much sharper contrast between thick and thin strokes. Claus Eggers Sørensen drew it in that transitional tradition, closer to Baskerville and the Didones than to old-style romans.

High contrast and delicate hairline serifs make it genuinely handsome at large sizes, which is why it dominates editorial headlines, fashion and food blogs, book covers and restaurant menus. It has a true italic with real cursive construction rather than a slant.

The name is honest about the constraint: this is a display face. At body sizes the hairlines break down and the contrast becomes glare. Set it big and put a text face underneath.