Clean and distinctive Gothic font, 「Sandoll Greta Sans」

 

In the fall of 2018, Sandoll attended the International Conference AtypI held in Antwerp, Belgium. After the conference, they visited Typotheque, a long-time friend and partner of Sandoll located in the Netherlands, accessible by train from Belgium. Typotheque is a leading font foundry in the Netherlands, situated in a charming building on a peaceful street in Amsterdam.

Although discussions on collaboration had taken place before, it was during this visit that serious talks about Korean collaboration on 「Greta Sans」 began. And that’s when 「Sandoll Greta Sans」 was born.

The building with Typotheque Studio

 

 

Typotheque's 「Greta Sans」 Family

The term "font family" refers to a set of fonts that share the same design concept. Just as with a family, there are families composed of various weights like Light, Regular, and Bold, families with different widths, and families composed of characters that can display various languages.

Diagram illustrating the structure of the 「Greta Sans」 family

 

 

Among Typotheque's many multilingual font families, Greta is particularly notable for supporting numerous weights and a wide array of languages. Beyond Latin alphabets, it includes Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, Indic scripts, Hebrew, Thai, and more, supporting over 200 languages worldwide. With the addition of Korean through 「Sandoll Greta Sans」, we are now introducing Greta's multilingual character system to Korean users as well.

 

 

The Gothic Typeface Inspired by Handwriting, 「Greta Sans」 Hangul

When we first decided to create the Korean family for 「Greta Sans」, the designers at Sandoll aimed to make this Korean font exude a lively and expressive impression, reminiscent of handwriting with lively strokes. They believed this would complement the personality of the Latin alphabet within 「Greta Sans」. Particularly because 「Greta Sans」's Latin alphabet maintains the characteristics of a serif with handwriting features, we wanted to create a similar impression in Korean fonts. Compared to the well-known serif font 「Helvetica」, 「Greta Sans」 is closer to handwriting in its structure, offering a brighter and more dynamic impression.

The top is Helvetica Neue, and the bottom is Greta Sans

 

However, rather than simply imitating its appearance, we approached the creation of the Korean version of 「Greta Sans」 by reflecting on the original intentions behind its Latin design. Designers gathered together to brainstorm and sketch ideas on how to reinterpret these Latin features and impressions in Korean fonts. From the initial sketches that incorporated various handwriting characteristics, we gradually refined them to align more closely with modern typographic forms. The completed 「Greta Sans」 Korean still maintains a handwriting-like form, especially evident in characters like 시옷, 지읒, and 치읓.

Initial sketches handmade during a workshop

 

 

Big Family

Another great aspect of 「Greta Sans」 is its support for 10 weights. From the thinnest Hairline to the boldest Black, it ensures wide usability suitable for various situations. Just like with the Latin alphabet, maintaining strong individuality across these 10 weights adds a unique aesthetic to body text.

When creating 「Greta Sans」 Hangul, we endeavored to adapt these characteristics that the Latin version possesses to suit Korean. Rather than blindly matching appearances, we approached it by considering how to reflect 「Greta Sans」's Latin design intent in Korean. Designers gathered together to brainstorm and sketch ideas in various ways.

 

Full Width Character Spacing

「Greta Sans」 Hangul is planned to have a width of 1,000 units across all weights. This is known as full width character spacing, where in most cases, the height of the characters is also set to 1,000 units. Setting them to full width ensures that the characters are drawn within a square frame. This setting optimizes space utilization compared to narrower widths and allows even very bold weights of the font to maintain readability while designing.

「Sandoll Greta Sans」 has utilized this feature fully by designing the width of Korean characters and basic punctuation consistently across its 10 weights. As a result, even when weights are changed, the layout of the text remains unchanged and readability is maintained, making typesetting Korean text much more convenient.

There were several technical adjustments related to Hangul full width character spacing. One issue was that the original Latin alphabet of 「Greta Sans」 appeared disproportionately small compared to Korean when set to full width. Typotheque and Sandoll agreed to prioritize usability for local users—Korean users—thus, in 「Greta Sans」 Hangul font, Latin characters were enlarged to 125% of their usual size. Symbols and punctuation were adjusted accordingly.

When typesetting with Korean and basic punctuation, the layout remains consistent even when weights are changed.

 

 

Beta Test and Updates

Additionally, there was a special process conducted towards the end. From April to July 2020, the beta testing of 「Sandoll Greta Sans」 was conducted. More than 5,000 users of Sandoll Cloud participated in the beta test, with over 500 of them providing specific usage reviews and various feedback to Sandoll. Based on the users' feedback, Sandoll's designers improved 「Sandoll Greta Sans」 as follows:

• The punctuation marks overall became larger.

• The weight distribution of some characters was adjusted.

• Descenders were elongated.

• Particularly in the bold weights, the contrast between the thickest and thinnest strokes was softened.

Additionally, there were minor updates scattered throughout.

 

Since its release in October 2020, 「Sandoll Greta Sans」 has steadily gained popularity among users. It is frequently encountered in various everyday places and situations, fitting seamlessly with diverse media and concepts. The boldest weight, Black, is often seen in various posters. It has also been used on the cover of Gullja18, a publication by the Korean Typography Society. It can even be found on cafe menu boards near Sandoll's headquarters.

As we continue, we entrust the usefulness of 「Sandoll Greta Sans」 to all of you who have made unexpected pleasant encounters possible.

 

「Sandoll Greta Sans」 used in <Letter Seed 18> published in 2021

 

Written by: Sandoll Product Planning Team