Parisine Plus and its fancy type effects

Started as an informal versions of Parisine, Parisine Plus was designed with the idea of bringing to a sanserif a lot from what we can generally find in serif typefaces. Serif typefaces are built on long tradition of letterforms taking their roots on writing. It is less directly the case with sanserif. Parisine Plus can be described as a “lineale garalde” or a Humanistic sans depending which typeface classification system you prefer. Humanistic sanserif are praised for their legibility and the rhythm they bring to paragraphs. But such sanserif are generally designed in a sober manner compared to a Garamond or a Baskerville. It’s particularly true on italics.

^{Garamond, Baskerville and Gill Sans compared to Parisine Plus.}

Jean François’ idea was to bring back on his Parisine Plus what we like on a Garamond or Baskerville Italic. The result is still a sanserif, but the typesettings are more pleasant to the eyes. Parisine Plus was designed in 1999, available in PostScript Type 1 versions. At this time the extra glyphs have been put together in separate fonts. The user had to search and replace some glyphs by others from one font to another. For Parisine Plus this option was used along with the use of empty slots in the main font. Influenced by the idea of snap on serifs created by Matthew Carter for his Walker typeface, few half glyphs such A, E, H can be used to create vibrant ligatures in capital setting. In the same veine, the alternate s connect to many voyels and few others letters to create ligatures. Using all theses effects together with unusual ct, st on a sanserif, Parisine Plus was a joy for Typophiles.

^{Extract from the original specimen of Parisine Plus published in 1999 showing explanation on how to use its ligatures and alternates.}

The OpenType features of the Parisine Plus PRO

Some of Parisine Plus OpenType features can be available in one software and not others. MacOS by default proposes OpenType features support in TextEdit, Pages, Keynote, etc. So, some third parties applications which use Apple typography engine may support the OpenType features too. Under Windows, Word Office 2010 supports OpenType features. Adobe Creative Suite offers a good OpenType features support. Quark Xpress too.

^{Reference without any OpenType features.}

Stylistic set 1: Fancy alternates

Stylistic set 2: Fancy and uncommon ligatures: fi… and st… ligatures are activated through the usual ligatures and special ligatures features

Stylistic set 3: Formal alternates

Stylistic set 4: a-a alternates

Stylistic set 5: Disconnected c cedillas

Stylistic set 6: Arrows in positions from A-a to H-h

Few Stylistic sets all together

In 2006, Parisine Plus was rebuilt from scratch for OpenType and a lot more ligatures were added, following the earlier idea of half letters but using the full potentiality of OpenType features. Suddenly what was difficult to achieve was simple as switching from one OpenType feature to another. With 900 glyphs by weight, its a fancy and radical typeface to be used with moderation (at your convenience indeed) in a sense that any word, sentence set in Parisine Plus is not any more transparent to the reader. Several Stylistic sets are present in the OpenType fonts (in Pro versions), many combinations are available for the user, ranging from muted variations to extreme, offering colorful effects to apply to any text. In addition, the family has Small Caps, four sets of figures, fractions along with other goodies.

How to pair correctly Parisine Plus?

^{Parisine Plus and Apolline.}

^{Parisine Plus and Le Monde Livre.}

Pairing Parisine Plus is easy, on Parisine Plus Details tab at Typofonderie, we suggested Apolline, Le Monde Livre and Geneo. In fact as a lively Humanistic Sans, it pairs well with any oldstyle serif typefaces, because they share similar structure. Parisine Plus can work also with very straight, mechanical typefaces like Eurostyle or delicate Didones such our Ambroise. In such cases, differences must be clear and obvious to remain effective.

The good surprise is that you can enjoy Parisine Plus & save 15% on your purchase using the coupon “15_PP” — special offer available until the 15 September 2012. Extended until 30 September 2012!

→ Parisine Plus: A fancy sanserif in 12 series.
→ Apolline: An Oldstyle serif in 10 series & ornaments.
→ Le Monde Livre: A text face in 5 weights, romans & italics.
→ Geneo: A robust oldstyle, an elegant slab, 18 styles.
→ In use: Reset the City of Hertogenbosch
→ In use: Musée du quai Branly set in Parisine Plus
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→ Parisine: A workhorse & economical sanserif in 16 series
→ Parisine Office: Humanistic sanserif in 4 series
→ Read more: About Parisine project