Dante and its alternatives

aku_ankkuli
19.Jun.2004 11.07pm

There seems to be disagreement about the quality of the Monotype Dante font. Some say it is well digitized, some find the hot-metal version much superior.
Experts! What is your final word on this subject and are there any alternatives to Dante that would look very similar to the hot-metal version?

degregorio2
19.Jun.2004 11.37pm

both are very well drawed, but i like a little more hot metal

John Hudson
20.Jun.2004 9.19am

The Stamperia Valdonega in Verona, now run my Giovanni Mardersteig's son, Martino, has its own digital version of Dante. This is really splendid, has a range of optical sizes, and is much superior to the Monotype version. Also, it is based on the foundry metal original, not Monotype's hot metal version. It is not available for license.

The Monotype digital version is not a bad font -- it is better than many digital incarnations of metal types and has a reasonably good weight -- but is pales in comparison to the Stamperia Valdonega version.

Nick Shinn
20.Jun.2004 2.29pm

"Stamperia Valdonega" also sounds way more impressive than "Monotype".

as8
20.Jun.2004 3.09pm

Dante_MT&VAL.pdf (182.7 k)

dezcom
20.Jun.2004 4.01pm

Thank you Alessando!

ChrisL

John Hudson
20.Jun.2004 6.35pm

Yikes! I've never seen the Stamperia Valdonega version in a PDF before, only at text size in print. It's pretty scary when you zoom in on the outlines.

The SV is used only internally at the press.

as8
20.Jun.2004 6.38pm

By chance, I just ended up in this document,
it is set in Dante MT.
-
"Europe versus America" is a report by a Swedish public policy institute
comparing the two economies, concluding that "If the European Union were
a state in the USA it would belong to the poorest group of states."
http://www.timbro.se/bokhandel/pdf/9175665646.pdf [980 Kb]

as8
21.Jun.2004 5.11am

defaultValuer. ??ȵ\n,
for Political learning, I am very poor in that field.
I just ended up in that document while I was thinking
of Dante typeface, it was funny. I didn`t know what
the Swedish "Timbro" is, but in Italian that word means
stamp, so I attach my timbro.

"With a truckload of salt" is a nice expression;
I like salt, I know you can find salt in the sea
and in the tears, and well, yes, typographers also cries :-)

Today is my birthday so I auto-write my whishes!
Best,