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Hot Type: Andralis ND
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Andralis ND by Rubén Fontana, 2004

Andralis ND wants to write a story for the ages. Quaint and hardy in equal measures, the text family has a gentle voice, and its angular forms give the characters a hand-crafted tenor: enduring and just a bit rustic. It's a typeface for fairytales and mythologies, for fables and histories. While it's not a classically elegant typeface (it is more of a rugged thing for small sizes), there's something almost epic about it: nested ligatures hark back to the days of engraved inscriptions, while sturdy pot-boiler small caps and open roman figures wait to tell rambling tales—a typeface in which Ovid and Steinbeck could converse. 

Designed by Buenos Aires native Rubén Fontana, Andralis ND won a jury award for the Biennial Latin Letters in 2004. STEPHEN COLES and ANNA MALSBERGER

Stephen Coles is an editor at the online journal Typographica. Anna Malsberger is a filmmaker and designer for PBS's American Experience.

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