Stretto

Stretto (Italian for narrow) is a revival, correction and expansive update of an Aldo Novarese reverse-stress font called Sintex, which he did for VGC in 1973.

Openly idiosyncratic and playfully rebellious in its design, this alphabet fuses the straights and rounds in an unusual manner, riffing on the idea of hand-made sign and wood type forms while adhering to its odd grid’s parameters. In spite of its counter-stress, its legibility is high and even, helped by its unicase forms and very distinct counters.

First released in 2007, it became quite popular with film studios and nostalgia designers (Sintex was the font used for David Bowie’s Hunky Dory album and Life on Mars? single). A dozen years later we revisited it for an update. Stretto now comes with over 660 characters and includes Pan European language support.