HAL Magic is a confident and dynamic geometric sans-serif face. The superfamily spans 3 subfamilies (High, Mid, Low) and 36 individual styles, all included in one spellbinding variable font. With a gracefully fluid x-height and many more special tricks up its sleeve, Magic’s charming details are in a league of their own and worth a closer look. Enjoy the show. ❶

There are a number of aspects to address, when breaking down the main features of the typeface and how these particularities were considered during its development. The initial spark came from Joseph Churchward’s design for Tranquility, acquired by Berthold Fototype and distributed from 1972 in four styles (Medium, Medium Italic, Demi Bold, Demi Bold Italic). Tranquility’s general form is striking and decisive, even more remarkable is the italic treatment of the round characters. Some shapes such as e, G, Q, and o are identical to the upright, while a, b, C, c, d, g, and p are beautifully rotated. It was crucial for Magic to adopt and emphasise this original approach, as it also lends to enchanting transitions in variable applications. Hence, the italic styles were appropriately named Obliques.

In the initial stages of Magic’s inception, finding the suitable x-height lead to the review and analysis of some genre classics: Futura, Nobel, Kabel, Granby, Super-Grotesk, etc. ❷ The question was then asked: could the x-height be unusually low, typically observed in a number of peculiar serif faces such as Koch Antiqua, Nicolas Cochin, Egmont, Bernhard Modern and LMR Dunhill. ❸ Or could the x-height possibly be raised to the extreme, to that of the cap height? The result being a true unicase style for all lower case characters (when descenders are ignored). Concerns with legibility arose, best illustrated by lowercase n and h, which would basically look the same. Therefore, the tallest x-height had to be slightly short of the cap height. Nonetheless, Magic High still boasts that unicase vibe, while on the other end of the spectrum Magic Low stands proudly tall, strutting its own distinct look. The smooth transition between these x-heights is eye-catching and each static file — be it High, Mid or Low — offers an individual flavour. Finally, Magic has both extremes incorporated in its DNA: a very low and a very high x-height, providing a rare and authentic range of characteristics.

Several technical facets to highlight are the alternate characters as well as the case-sensitive parameters. Magic offers alternatives for the lowercase a and its arrows, accessible via stylistic sets. Additionally, an alternative version for the german ß (Eszett, sharp S) is included, a nod to the iconic street signage of West-Berlin (originally designed by Herbert Thannhaeuser). Case-sensitive settings will automatically be applied when accessing the all-caps function. This necessity ensures that relevant punctuation, digits, fractions, math signs, currency symbols and other pertinent glyphs (such as @ and &) don’t appear misplaced next to the uppercase characters.

Determining the right balance in weight for the upper and lowercase characters was also a major challenge. The uppercase letters remain visually unchanged while the lowercase range in x-height from one extreme to the other, with an overall shift from light (20) to heavy (200). Magic High, Mid and Low can be easily combined with each other, even within a word, and all glyphs are optically and mutually intact. The result is an exceptionally versatile family, fulfilling all typesetting needs: perfect for longer texts, ideal for headline/display purposes and essential for creating logos and logotypes. The variable font file includes all singular states and styles. It shifts along three different axes simultaneously: the weight axis, the slant axis and the x-height axis. This allows for the creation of mesmerising animations. ❹ Also, Magic completes Christoph Koeberlin’s Latin Extended Latin-S charset, ❺ supporting over 380 languages, plus Vietnamese. Magic will sparkle, go the distance and bring that A-game. Front row seats for all.

1. Alakazam the Great, known in Japan as Saiyūki (西遊記, lit. “Journey to the West”), was a Japanese anime musical film from 1960.
2. Futura was designed by Paul Renner and released by Bauer in 1927. Nobel was created by Sjoerd Hendrik de Roos and released by Typefoundry Amsterdam in 1929. Rudolf Koch’s Kabel was released by Klingspor in 1927–30. Granby was designed in-house at Stephenson Blake and released in 1930 to compete with Futura and Gill Sans. Super-Grotesk, designed by Arno Drescher for Schriftguss AG in Dresden and first published in 1930.
3. Koch-Antiqua was designed by Rudolf Koch and published by Klingspor in 1922. Nicolas Cochin, designed by Georges Peignot, was released by Peignot & Fils in 1912. Egmont was designed by S.H. de Roos and issued by Lettergieterij Amsterdam in 1932. LMR Dunhill is part of the Latin Modern fonts (designed by B. Jackowski & J.M. Nowacki), which are derived from the Computer Modern fonts by Donald E. Knuth. Bernhard Modern was designed by Lucian Bernhard and issued by ATF in 1937.
4. HAL Magic was designed and conceived by HAL Typefaces, and produced together with Alex Lescieux.
5. Read more on Christoph Koeberlin’s Latin-S character set…