Reforma typeface notes

You can find here my notes for the Reforma typeface. Reforma was designed by Alejandro Lo Celso and programmed by Guido Ferreyra as part of a commission to the PampaType foundry by the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina. It is published under the Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 and you can use it for free with attribution. It consists of 3 subfamilies: the Reforma 1918, the Reforma 1969, and the Reforma 2018.

Opinions & notes

The following quotes are from a blog post written by the designer that explains the story of the typeface, and from the PDF files that come with the font files.

"The Reforma type family is divided into 3 subfamilies:

• Reforma 1918, the classic version (humanist serif).
• Reforma 2018, the modern version (humanist sans-serif).
• Reforma 1969, a hybrid version (incise, flare serif)".

Reforma is a multi-form humanist typeface that combines the virtues of Roman epigraphic tradition, such as dignity and sobriety, with a sense of modern friendliness.

The following quote is from a Typographica review by Luara Meseguer.

…Reforma explores versatility by way of a common skeleton wearing different outfits.

My notes

• Reforma 1918 looks good in large sizes, but I prefer the other two for body text.
• Reforma 2018 (the sans-serif) version gives me a “calculator vibe”. This happens due to the extreme modulated strokes of the bold versions, near the joining strokes. For example:
  n h p
• When you download the font files, you get a specimen PDF and a PDF with usage instructions.
• It doesn’t have a regular weight, but you can use the Gris version (500) with lighter colors.
• The zip includes woff/woff2 files, and because they are small, there’s no need for Unicode subsets.
• It has a black 900 version, but it’s used exclusively by the university.

Links

• The project is not available on GitHub but there is a blog post on the foundry’s site with a lot of useful information.
• Download link for Reforma.
• Typewolf doesn’t have a review, but Reforma was part of the list: ”The 10 Best Free Fonts That Aren’t Available on Google Fonts.”
• Typographica review for Reforma.
• Fontsinuse entries for the Reforma family: Reforma 1918 and Reforma 2018.
• An example repo that uses Reforma.

Playground

All notes are for the following version:

Version 1.001; ttfautohint (v1.6)Copy

OpenType features

All the Reforma subfamilies support 22 layout features in roman and 25 in italics. They support all types of figures (onum, pnum, tnum, lnum), but they doesn’t have small caps. Reforma has many interesting stylistic sets, and the italic versions have discretionary ligatures. There are also some uppercase ligatures but they are exclusively used by the University. The following table shows some of the most interesting features:

Interesting characters

For more interesting characters see the OpenType features above, check the playground, or get a copy from Pampatype’s site and drop it in the Wakamai Fondue app to discover them yourself.

• C
• H
• J
• M
• Q
• R
• a
• f
• n
• r
• 9
• &
• €
• “”
• †
• ‡
• 

Character support

According to Wakamai Fondue, it has 276 characters and 359 glyphs. The font files cover the majority, if not all, of the following Unicode sets.

Not complete sets (below 50%)

Total characters = 42. This means that the typeface supports only specific languages/characters from these Unicode blocks.

Weights & styles

Each subfamily comes in 3 weights with matching italics: light 300 (Blanca), semi 500 (Gris), and bold 700 (Negra). Italic = Italica.