Rialto dF is a book face inspired by calligraphic tradition. Named after the famous bridge in Venice, it was conceived as a bridge between calligraphy and typography, roman and italic. It can also be thought of as an imaginary bridge between Italy and Austria, since it is the result of collaboration started in 1995 between the Austrian Lui Karner and Venetian Giovanni de Faccio. The letterforms of Rialto dF were drawn directly in digital format with a starting point deriving from humanistic letterforms memorized in the hearts, minds and the manual ability of its designers… As tradition demands, uppercase, numerals and punctuation are used in combination with italics – the same solution adopted by Francesco Griffo when he cut his first italic for the Virgil, the first of the octavo series printed and published in Venice by Aldus Manutius in 1501.
Rialto dF comes in two optical weights: Piccolo, for up to 14 pt, and Grande for 16pt and above. Alternate characters and various dingbats are also provided and these are available through OpenType features developed by type designer and technician Karsten Luecke.