Lyon Font

Kai Bernau’s Lyon Text began as his Type + Media degree project at the KABK in The Hague. Commercial Type records substantial revision and expansion before its 2009 debut in The New York Times Magazine. The later Display branch adapts the project to a different size range.

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.

Lyon Display sharpens features such as serifs while softening selected corners and italic details. Text and Display are purposeful branches rather than interchangeable menu labels. The wider international project also has script-specific credits and resources that should be checked separately.

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.

Compare a reading paragraph and a large headline in the corresponding branches. Inspect the italic and small details at actual output size. Keep paragraph line length fixed when judging the Text family’s rhythm against an independent alternative.

For independent comparisons, try Source Serif 4 and EB Garamond. Use the same wording and approximate output size. The related style guide provides broader design context.

Use Commercial Type to try the original and investigate the files, styles and terms for your intended workflow. This site does not distribute or serve Lyon 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.