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ECAL/Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne
5, avenue du Temple, Renens VD
Case postale 555
CH-1001 Lausanne


About

ECAL Typefaces has, since 2016, been the first online type foundry based within a university. Its initial remit was to respond to frequent requests to acquire the typefaces seen in ECAL corporate communications, such as posters, invitation cards and catalogues. The foundry is now fully embedded in the ECAL Master’s Degree in Type Design (MATD), and also features work from the ECAL Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design. All fonts have been designed by students.

From 2021, the new website offers a broader overview of student work. We have now included ‘Stories’, an ever-evolving collection of student writing that reflect on the challenges that are driving contemporary type design forward. These essays are written and edited as part of the MATD Theory class under the supervision of Wayne Daly and Roland Früh.

The fonts sold on ECAL Typefaces typically originated in MATD classes tutored by Kai Bernau, Matthieu Cortat, Alice Savoie and Radim Peško, and in workshops led by internationally renowned guests. These give students the opportunity to help select typeface releases and determine how they represent their typefaces on a professional foundry. Their designs are developed from early sketches to workable files, under the close supervision of Malte Bentzen.

This explains why ECAL Typefaces is such an essential pedagogic tool in the MATD curriculum, providing an important platform enabling our students to make their work available to a wider audience, and situating their practices within Swiss and global type-design culture. Our new website will allow our alumni to expand their work and offer extra cuts, revised versions and alternate characters. The original ECAL Typefaces website had mostly focused on the rapid and spontaneous release of display type. The new version uses broader criteria and includes text fonts and larger families, enabling students to demonstrate a wider range of skills thereby giving further and more striking evidence of the MATD working process.

Half of the income generated from sales goes directly to the students, with the remainder contributing to running costs, technical assistance, and inviting guest lecturers to offer us their insights into the world of type founding.

Web development: Lionel Tardy

Technical Specificities

All ETF fonts are coded, generated and tested in the same way that you would expect from any other major type foundry.

They are delivered in OTF Postscript format (.otf) as well as WOFF (.woff) and WOFF2 (.woff2) for webfonts. No other formats are available. We do not plan to provide custom cuts of existing typefaces. However, we are always open to new challenges; please feel free to contact us if you want character set extensions or additional weights.

All ETF fonts cover the following 140 languages:

Abenaki, Afaan Oromo, Afar, Albanian, Alsatian, Amis, Anuta, Aragonese, Aranese, Arrernte, Arvanitic (Latin), Asturian, Aymara, Basque, Bikol, Bislama, Breton, Cape Verdean Creole, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chickasaw, Cofán, Corsican, Danish (modern), Dawan, Delaware, Dholuo, Drehu, Dutch (modern), English, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, Folkspraak, French, Frisian, Friulian, Galician, Genoese, German, Gooniyandi, Guadeloupean Creole, Haitian Creole, Hän, Hiligaynon, Hopi, Hungarian, Ido, Ilocano, Indonesian, Interglossa, Interlingua, Irish, Italian, Jamaican, Javanese (Latin), Jèrriais, Kala Lagaw Ya, Kapampangan (Latin), Kaqchikel, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kiribati, Kirundi, Kligon, Latin, Latino sine Flexione, Lojban, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Makhuwa, Malay, Manx, Marquesan, Meriam Mir, Mohawk, Montagnais, Murrinh-Patha, Nagamese Creole, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Ngiyambaa, Norwegian, Novial, Occidental, Occitan, Oshiwambo, Palauan, Papiamento, Piemontese, Portuguese, Potawatomi, K’eqchi’, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romansh, Rotokas, Sami (Southern Sami), Samoan, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish, Gaelic, Seri, Seychellois Creole, Shawnee, Shona, Sicilian, Slovio (Latin), Somali, Sotho (Southern), Spanish, Sranan, Sudanese (Latin), Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tetum, Tok Pisin, Tokelauan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tumbuka, Tzotzil, Uzbek (Latin), Volapük, Walloon, Waray-Waray, Warlpiri, Wayuu, Wik-Mungkan, Wiradjuri, Xhosa, Yapese, Yindjibarndi, Zapotek, Zulu

Some fonts also include alternate characters, ligatures, stylistic sets and other OpenType features.

FAQ

Please make sure you are using the latest version of your operating system.

The only method we use to license our fonts is SIX Payment. SIX Payment accepts the following credit cards: Visa, Mastercard, American Express.

When purchasing a typeface from our online store, you will have to add two further details besides the personal information that you entered when opening your account:

The Billing Address is the address that appears on the invoice. The License Holder address is the address of the licensee, individual, or company that will have access to the font files and the right to store, install and use them.

Please note that we cannot provide you with a VAT number for our company. ECAL Typefaces is not subject to VAT and no VAT will be added to your purchase.

Our online shop will charge you in CHF (Swiss francs).

This invoice is a part of the license, so even if you purchase a license on behalf of one of your clients, you need to give your customer a copy. When you purchase a font from us, an HTML invoice will appear in your client account under the Order tab. You can print it or save it on your own computer as a PDF document.

All updates are free. For important updates, you will receive an email notification. Simply go to your client account and download the font files again.

Fonts are digital files which immediately become available to the client once paid for; consequently, we cannot process any refunds once a font has been purchased and can be downloaded on your account.

Students are entitled to a discount.

Our webfonts are optimized for screens using an automated Postscript hinting method. You will find Free Trial webfonts in your client account and can test them in different browsers. The webfonts are also displayed on the homepage.

Your standard purchase offers access to our OTF font files containing the “.otf” extension for use as desktop fonts, in mobile apps, electronic documents and for broadcasting.

The webfonts packages contain WOFF (.woff) and WOFF2 (.woff2) formats. No other formats are available.

No: please read our Free Trial License carefully.

This depends on your operating system (Mac, Windows, Linux, etc.) and on whether you use font management software or not. Please refer to the documentation provided by your operating system or font manager.

In Adobe InDesign, you will find them in the OpenType features panel. In Adobe Illustrator, you can access Stylistic Sets only via the Glyphs panel. For other software, please refer to your software documentation about OpenType features compatibility. Please note that Stylistic Sets are not included in Free Trial versions.


ECAL/Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne
5, avenue du Temple, Renens VD
Case postale 555
CH-1001 Lausanne
©Students, ECAL 2024. All rights reserved.

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