Lakeside Font

Mark Simonson released Lakeside in 2008 after developing it from a commission for independent film titles. Its inspiration came from the hand-lettered titles of the 1944 film Laura. The resulting digital brush script uses contextual choices to evoke lettering rather than simply repeating an identical form in every position.

Read the publisher’s family page for the source account and the edition currently offered. Keep a family name distinct from its particular release, width or optical branch.

Lakeside includes normal, tall and small plain capitals, with the smaller set suited to all-capital settings. OpenType contextual alternates adapt letterforms to surrounding characters and their position within words. The creator’s introduction also demonstrates a lowercase t crossbar that adjusts to nearby letters.

Use the original publisher specimen to inspect those features. An alternative can share a broad role without having the same letter shapes, metrics or character coverage.

Set the same short title in mixed case, then compare the available capital treatments. Compare contextual alternates on and off in the original font so you can see how connections and endings change. Leave enough room around the script and check that decorative strokes do not collide with a subtitle.

For independent comparisons, try Playball and Yellowtail. Use the same wording and approximate output size. The related style guide provides broader design context.

Use Mark Simonson Studio to try the original and investigate the files, styles and terms for your intended workflow. This site does not distribute or serve Lakeside font software.

The editable alternatives here have their own source profiles and included licenses. For the difference between a font file and copied characters, read Unicode text versus fonts.