Geologica

Geologica is grounded in the humanist genre, but leans assertively into geometric, constructed letterforms to find its stability. The wide stance, generous spacing, large apertures and even colour makes Geologica a serious text typeface. The stylistic “Sharpness” axis adds a rational interpretation of calligraphic pen strokes – a modernist echo of the roots of writing.

Geologica type specimen

The default style of the Geologica typeface is a sober humanist sans serif with a rational finish. The terminals are perpendicular to the direction of the pen stroke, emphasising the monolinearity of the letterforms. The alternate “Sharp” styles introduces details derived from writing with a broad-nib pen. Sharp points arise where the imagined pen is set to paper. These details are echoed in the Carthesian terminal treatment, causing curved shapes to form sharp inner points as they terminate.

Geologica uses the power of the OpenType Variable Font format to simultaneously morph between Light and Black weights, Upright and Oblique, and stylistic variants. This gives an incredibly rich typographic palette, making Geologica a typeface of great versatility.

Variable axis

Axes	Tag	Range	Default	Description
Cursive	CRSV	0 - 1	0	Swaps Roman for Cursive variants of certain characters
Sharp	SHRP	0 to 100	0	Detailing and terminal treatment
Weight	wght	100 to 900	100	Thin to Black
Slant	slnt	0 to -12	0	Upright (0°) to Oblique (-12°)

Building the fonts

Step 1: Virtual environment & requirements

Navigate to the root directory

cd [folder location]

Set up a virtual environment in the root directory

virtualenv -p python3 venv

Activate the virtual environment

source venv/bin/activate

Install requirements

pip install -U -r Requirements.txt

You might also need to install ttfautohint

brew install ttfautohint

Step 2: Build the fonts

Navigate to /sources

Assuming you are already in the root directory

cd sources

Build designspace file in /master_ufo

sh build_ds.sh

Notes:

Run this command every time you make changes to the source file.
Once you update the designspace, merge the contents of the RulesFeatureVariations.txt file with your .designspace file. See details in the txt file.