Biwa & Biwa Display

Biwa is a new straight-sided family of formally nuanced grotesk typefaces. Biwa’s lighter weights feel subdued, cool in tone, and neutral, while the heavier weights are more robust and full of personality.

Developed over the past few years by Ian Lynam and James Todd, the 14-member Biwa family and the accompanying 14-member Biwa Display family are paeans to the immediate moment when phototype arrived on the global scene — partially smooth and partially machined. Biwa and Biwa Display are neutral in tone, have enlarged x-heights, and look amazing on-screen and in print.

Weights included: Biwa Biwa Thin & Biwa Thin Italic Biwa Light & Biwa Light Italic Biwa Regular & Biwa Regular Italic Biwa Medium & Biwa Medium Italic Biwa Bold & Biwa Bold Italic Biwa Black & Biwa Black Italic Biwa Ultra & Biwa Ultra Italic

Biwa Display Biwa Display Thin & Biwa Display Thin Italic Biwa Display Light & Biwa Display Light Italic Biwa Display Regular & Biwa Display Regular Italic Biwa Display Medium & Biwa Display Medium Italic Biwa Display Bold & Biwa Display Bold Italic Biwa Display Black & Biwa Display Black Italic Biwa Display Ultra & Biwa Display Ultra Italic

Each weight is designed to be highly readable in print and on-screen. The italic variations are true italics, having a single-storied italic a and have been designed for smooth, fluid reading and text-setting. Lovingly spaced and kerned, the Biwa family works equally well for text typesetting and for display design work.

Languages supported include Western European, Central, and South European.

The entire family is comprised of a range of weights and a matching display family that features rounded terminals for large-scale display work.

An Agate version of Biwa Black is provided for free, just for you. ;)

Sans serif fonts, no matter how neutral they feel, are ultimately formally nuanced. We wanted to add to this legacy, but bring in elements of the grotesks of the Stephenson Blake foundry to add humanizing features, creating a formal and conceptual interplay to delight the senses.

The lighter weights are slightly slimmer than the regular and bold weights to give the typeface more of a vertical feel, inviting readers’ to rapidly read typeset text with a maximum of contrast and a minimum of optical dazzle.

The entire family has been rigorously kerned and spaced for readability on-screen and in print. All typefaces are included in both OpenType and TrueType formats.