The Elstob font (named for the eighteenth-century Anglo-Saxonist Elizabeth Elstob) is based on the Double Pica commissioned by Bishop John Fell in the seventeenth century. Elstob is designed as a webfont. Thus:
- It is a variable font, with weights ranging from ExtraLight to ExtraBold, optical sizes from "Fine Print" (circa 6 points) to "Display" (circa 18 points or greater) and also a grade axis (1-500). (A non-variable desktop version is also available.)
- Outlines have been kept simple to limit file size.
- The intention of the font is to include everything in Unicode useful to a substantial number of medievalists, but the character set has been limited to around 1000 glyphs to keep file size reasonable. Many characters from the Medieval Unicode Font Initiative, present in the designer's Junicode font, can be represented with combining diacritics.
Links
Visit the specimen page to see how a variable font works and put Elstob through its paces.
I'll share new developments on Twitter from time to time and will welcome your feedback there.
Downloading and Installing
It is strongly suggested that you avoid downloading Elstob from commercial sites, as these do not generally offer the latest version, and some downloads may carry viruses.
For the Mac, a Homebrew package is available. Use this if possible, as it will simplify updating to the latest version.
For Linux users, packages exist for Debian, Arch Linux, Parrot, and others. Check your distribution for availability.
Windows users, Mac users who cannot use Homebrew, and Linux users whose distributions do not offer Elstob should download from this site and follow the instructions for installing on their systems.
Copyright 2020 by Peter S. Baker.
This Font Software is licensed under the SIL Open Font License, Version 1.1. See the file OFL.txt or visit http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=OFL.