Gawd it looks just like every other squarish sans out there right now.

I own Klavika which suffices for my square sans needs.

However, it looks like a fairly complete family.

This is much more subtle than Klavika (which I like too), which is one of the reasons I think I like it so much. I think I may get more mileage out of Camingo. Has anyone used it yet? For kicks here is a comparison of some recent square sans designs (off the top of my head)...

Don't forget Apex Sans, Neo Sans.

I hate that 'a' in Vista, ruins the font for me. Why does Emigre always do that?

Gee you forgot Zwo, Unit, Meta, Info, Fago, Zine, and Cachet.

Good ones Patty. I have Neo. There are a lot of Emigre faces that have a single character that I can't stand. Ruins it for me as well.

I agree that Unit, Fago and Zine are similar. Cachet isn't feasible for me, since it has only 3 weights, no italics, etc. Which reminds me of Zemestro - another one. Are there any thoughts in regards to the craftsmanship of this typeface?

If nothing else, this thread will serve as a good reference the next time someone needs a square sans ID'd.

> I hate that ‘a’ in Vista, ruins the font for me. Why does Emigre always do that?

to create something that doesn't look absolutely like everything else?

Camingo has a lot of nasty little attention getters that bug me. For example:
- There's too much flourish in the descender of f. I love f with a pretty descender–I make my handwritten f descenders so crazy that my notes are often illegible. But it doesn't fit with the rest of the letters.
- The A is gross–the internal and external apexes are too close–it's annoying. It's worse on the bold weights, where it looks like a little white triangle fighting for freedom.
- Why are the outer vertical strokes of the M diagonals? It's like the M from Lithos snuck in when nobody was watching.

I could stay up all night nitpicking at the letterforms in this one. I'll just keep using Unit instead.

I really like Foundry Form.

http://www.foundrytypes.co.uk/foundry_form_sans/formSansMedium.html

I wish Freda would improve her website, it desperately needs better type samples, and perhaps a test drive thing.

JPAD, thanks for your comments, I'll look at those items more closely. I hate licensing a typeface without examining it closely first, those things jump out at you later. Miles, I love Foundry Form too. It would be nice if they had a more user-friendly site. Their type is so nice, the site should be equally well-done.

Then there's Argo and Vesta by Gerard Unger....

Why does Emigre always do that?

Emigre didn't do it. Xavier Dupré did. Maybe you're thinking of Tarzana, which has a similar ostentatious tail on the 'a', but Vista is a much more usable typeface in the same vein.

Wouldn't Stainless belong in this category?

Hah.

I was just about to suggest Stainless.

Miss Tiffany beat me to it... by about 9 months :)

Any updates we can add to this now? What about Soho Gothic? http://www.monotype.co.uk/sg/

Allumi PTF, Etelka, Morgan Sans, Ubik, and of course PF Square Sans...

I created a list of square sans fonts at FontShop based on my own notes and suggestions from this thread.

Yay! Thanks.

The genre of sophisticated square sans faces, where squareness is integrated into a conventional sans effect by subtle drawing, has come on strong since I investigated square types in a magazine article, Hip 2B Square, 10 years ago

Dave Farey's Cachet was one of the first of this new breed, IIRC, and may even have been released when I wrote the article, but I didn't anticipate the way things would develop enough to mention it. In fact according to Dave, squareness wasn't the main theme of Cachet.

A lot of ideas that were raw ten or 15 years ago have been cooked up nicely.

Yyyup, it almost always takes a while...

hhp

Cachet is still one of my favorites in the bunch. Way ahead of its time. I keep crying to Dave for italics.

I had never heard of Cachet - very nice. I love square sans :-)

You can see also "Chaco" at
http://www.tipo.net.ar/chaco/index.html

Eduardo Tunni

Hermes ! :)

Great thread! And thank you Stephen for the FontShop list, very helpfull. Any suggestions on new 2010/2011 square sans fonts?