Crimson Text vs Lora
Two serif faces, set live below in their own letters — then the honest take on which to pick and when.
At a glance
- Tradition
- Old-style book serif
- Contemporary text serif
- Best medium
- Print-like long reads
- Screens, all sizes
- Feel
- Literary, warm
- Modern, robust
- Designer
- Sebastian Kosch, 2010
- Olga Karpushina, 2011
Crimson TextLora
The honest take
Two body serifs for long-form reading, from different corners of the tradition. Crimson Text (Sebastian Kosch, 2010) is an old-style book serif in the Garamond/Minion lineage, drawn expressly for setting books and long articles — it has classic proportions and a literary, printed-page warmth, best at generous sizes. Lora (Olga Karpushina, 2011) is a contemporary text serif with brushed, calligraphic roots and moderate contrast, tuned specifically to render well on screens. Choose Crimson Text when you want a bookish, editorial serif for essays and long reads that should feel like print. Choose Lora when screen legibility across sizes matters more and you want a slightly more modern, robust texture. Crimson Text is the more traditional literary voice; Lora the more screen-durable all-rounder.
The x-ray
Same size, same baseline — Crimson Text 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.
Read more
More about each face: Crimson Text · Lora