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Daphne was developed from a text written with a broad nib pen. A large number of calligraphic swashes are available for the strong and sharp-edged figures of Daphne Expert. They can be added to the letters via OpenType feature. Because many swashes fit on different characters, the combinations possible are endless. Alternate and complete swash characters offer additional options. An unique application for designers with a calligraphic instinct.

Daphne Basic contains no swashes or alternate glyphs. The terminals of ascenders and descenders are smooth.


Daphne Expert contains numerous calligraphic swashes, which can be added to the particular base glyph using OpenType feature. Therefore ascenders and descenders are specially formed. Alternate glyphs and complete swash letters supplement the character set. See a complete overview of the included OpenType features further down this page or download the User Manual (PDF, 188KB).


I was asked take on a contract for a hat shop in Dusseldorf in the 1960s. As an opening advert I used a text written with the broad-nib pen which turned out to be the basis for »Daphne« (image above). It was all about the bold italic line with large swashes. This font was accepted by Berthold for its Staromat. The various swashes could be copied onto other letters, depending on taste. This provided hundreds of possibilities. Although I gave exact instructions as to how these swashes were to be used, the production placed them wrong, some even upside down. This was one of the reasons why I decided to publish my fonts independently.

Georg Salden on the development »Daphne«

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OpenType-Features
Daphne fonts are available in OpenType Basic (no features) and OpenType Expert (features included). OpenType features provide advanced typographic performance and can be accessed by almost all professional layout software.


Various numerals
Daphne Expert fonts come with proportional lining figures with varying widths and kerning. Oldstyle and tabular figures are available via features. The space glyph measures exactly half of the width of tabular figures, therefore it can easily be used for spaces in tabular composition.


Fractions
Numerals separated by a slash will be replaced automatically by real fractions.


Superiors
Standard figures will be replaced by superior figures.


Inferiors
Standard figures will be replaced by inferior figures.


Language Features
Correct typographical glyphs e.g. in Romanian (commaaccent replaces cedilla) and Turkish (dotaccent on the small caps lower case i).


Swashes
The characters F, L, T, Z, d, e, f, fi, fl, g, k, l, r, t, z and ß will be replaced by their swash forms.


Alternate Characters and Contextual Ligatures
Alternate glyphs of the characters a, d, g and y can be applied via Stylistic Set 01 and 02 (InDesign) or Stylistic Alternates (QuarkXpress, Illustator, Photoshop). Contextual ligatures are available for ch und ck.


Historical Form
The lowercase s will be replaced by its historical form. You can also add swashes to the long s by using the Swash feature or Contextual Alternates.


Contextual Alternates
A large number of swashes are available to add to certain characters. Type either a sequence of asterisks before a character or a sequence of plus signs after a character. Swashes also available for many accented and other language-specific characters. For a complete overview please download the PDF below.


The same feature allows you to access the glyphs of the features previously mentioned (Swash, Alternate Characters, Contextual Ligatures, Historical Forms) by typing a # in front of the particular character. It is also possible to combine all features.


Please note: Do not increase or decrease the spacing between the characters as it will lead to incorrect connections of swash and base glyph. Download the Daphne User Manual below to get a complete overview of all possible swashes and other OpenType features.



The typographic layout features can be accessed via the Opentype palette (Illustrator) or the Character palette (InDesign and QuarkXpress). All glyphs available with the font can be seen in the Glyph palette.