sans-serif · Velvetyne
Format 1452
Frank Adebiaye, Velvetyne's founder, built Format 1452 as a DIN-like typeface constructed entirely from modules, with no optical corrections at all. First published in 2010 and later refined with Anton Moglia, its condensed geometric skeleton makes it a quietly industrial workhorse.
Weights
Served as WOFF2: the same outlines the foundry drew, about 30% smaller over the wire.
Credit & license
Drawn by Frank Adebiaye, with Anton Moglia, published by Velvetyne under the OFL-1.1 Open Font License. You can use it, freely. Get the files.
Pairs well with
New shapes, freely given
The five boxing wizards jump quickly over the lazy dog, and nobody had to ask a licence department first.
Lora — a bookish serif that softens Format 1452's modular industrial edge.
New shapes, freely given
The five boxing wizards jump quickly over the lazy dog, and nobody had to ask a licence department first.
IBM Plex Serif — another engineering-minded family that shares its rational construction.
New shapes, freely given
The five boxing wizards jump quickly over the lazy dog, and nobody had to ask a licence department first.
IBM Plex Mono — a humanist-leaning mono that complements the DIN-flavored geometry.
The x-ray
Same size, same baseline — Format 1452 over Lora. Where they agree the strokes merge; where they argue, fringes.
“Hamburgefonstiv” is the type designer's test word — it carries most of the shapes that give a face away.