These were the times of the reinvention of the Ancient Greek and Roman science, art and literature. Mainstream typography moved away from the original Textura Blackletter model of the early days of printing to Humanist letterforms inspired by Carolingian writing used in ancient manuscripts of the Holy Roman Empire. It was a decisive turning point for Latin typography that shapes our reading habits up to this day.

The work of the punch-cutters such as Jenson, Manitius, Griffo, Garamond, Granjon, Haultin, Villiers and other contemporary masters is here summarized, abstracted, and interpreted into Galien, a digital typeface of the twenty-first century. Galien is rather a revival of a period than that of a particular typeface. The Italics are directly inspired by the Venitian types of the early sixteenth century.

Galien is a well-dosed blend of various Old Style models that shapes a contemporary digital typeface. Tuned to perform well at body copy size, the contrast between thick and thin remains nevertheless quite visible to preserve elegance. While the 8 styles of the family ensure good legibility at small sizes, the special Poster cut enhances the flamboyance of this interpretation with a particularly high contrast on a more transitional axis with some daring design decisions for impactful headlines.