Letterform

Balzac

After
Deberny & Cie, Paris, 1921
Styles
Four weights, each with an italic
Character set
Glyphs, ligatures, diacritics
Process book
Risograph, three copies

A fatface
brought forward

Balzac is a revival of a 1921 specimen from the French foundry Deberny & Cie. The original fatface ran two weights, and the surviving specimen showed only a third of the character set, so most of the face had to be reasoned back from what little was on the page. Carrying it into the present meant more weights and italics, drawn to hold up on screen as well as in print. Glyphs and ligatures were built out, and diacritic forms were added so the face can set more languages than the original ever had to.

Balzac specimen sheet, Spécimen Typographique, showing four optical sizes and italics

Four weights, eight styles

Medium, Semibold, Bold and Black, each with a matching italic.

The full Balzac character set across four weights and their italics

Filling out the set

Glyphs and ligatures built for the screen, and diacritics the 1921 original never carried.

Balzac glyphs and ligatures
Balzac diacritic forms

Setting text

A history of the Deberny typefoundry, set in Balzac from 9 to 20 point.

A long article set in Balzac at sizes from 9 to 20 point

The process book,
in Letterform Archive’s
permanent collection

Printed on a risograph and spiral bound. Three copies exist, and one of them is held in the archive in San Francisco.

The Balzac process book, spiral bound, with interior spreads

Interpolating the weights

Pulling a capital A from Deberny Medium through to Balzac Black Italic.

In print

A Balzac poster in a black frame, yellow letterforms on black
The Plague by Albert Camus, a Modern Library paperback with a fatface title
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