Corsario Variable
Corsario: A Variable Font Family Tailor-Made for the Demands of Magazines and Editorial Design
Editorial design places specific demands on a typeface: it needs to perform across a wide range of sizes and contexts – from expressive headlines and extended reading texts to captions and footnotes – while maintaining a consistent visual language. Corsario Variable, designed by Felix Braden, was developed with these requirements in mind.
The variable font combines a weight axis with an optical size axis, allowing designers to fine-tune the typeface for specific reading conditions instead of relying solely on predefined styles. This enables a single font file to be used equally for expressive display typography as well as continuous text and the smallest text sizes.
Rooted in the British typographic tradition of the nineteenth century, Corsario selectively draws from nineteenth-century Transitional, Scotch and Fatface designs, combining their structural qualities with contemporary proportions and geometric details. Its distinctive, sharply drawn serifs are a defining characteristic, giving the typeface a high degree of recognisability and an elegant appearance in larger sizes, while contributing to the stability and legibility of the typography at smaller sizes.
Designing for Legibility
A central influence on the project is the work of Dutch type designer Gerard Unger, particularly his theory of legibility. Unger’s approach often relied on relatively flat, horizontal shoulders that increase the openness of counters while creating a lighter overall texture. One of the defining characteristics of this strategy is the use of flat arches (for example in n, h and m), which emphasise the horizontal elements of the letters and contribute to a smoother reading flow.*
The emphasis on horizontal structures is particularly evident in Corsario’s Caption version, where it creates a stable texture that remains highly legible even under challenging conditions – for example, on low-resolution screens or in newspaper printing.
Many other details within the type family follow the same functional approach. In the display sizes, dynamic hairlines gradually increase in weight towards the serifs, highlighting the areas that are important for character recognition. In the text and caption sizes, the hairlines are consistently strengthened to ensure good legibility.
Optical Sizes Reconsidered
Corsario Variable also revisits the classic typographic concept of optical sizes. During the era of lead type, it was standard practice for each point size to be drawn individually. Smaller sizes required more robust proportions and simplified details, while larger sizes allowed for finer contrasts and more delicate forms.
With the introduction of phototypesetting in the mid-twentieth century, this practice largely disappeared. Economic and technical considerations led to the widespread adoption of a single design that was scaled across all sizes – a compromise that remained largely unquestioned during the era of desktop publishing.
The development of variable font technology has brought renewed attention to the subject. Variable fonts make it possible to incorporate different optical sizes and interpolate continuously between them. Corsario Variable uses these possibilities to transfer the traditional concept of optical sizes into a contemporary digital context. This allows expressive display styles and highly legible text sizes with a single font file.
*Unger, G., Wie man’s liest, p. 119, Zürich 2009
Foundry:
Floodfonts
Designer:
Felix Braden
