Plain Font: Optimo’s François Rappo Family and Text Features

Optimo’s original Plain resource credits François Rappo and describes an optical approach to glyph surfaces rather than a strictly geometric construction. Its weight list runs from Skeleton to Super with italic companions. Plain Pan and Plain Arabic appear as separately named resources; keep the exact edition alongside a specimen when comparing language coverage. This guide concerns the commercial family, rather than plain text as a general formatting instruction.

The foundry documents case-sensitive forms, contextual alternates that reposition a dash between capitals or numbers, and a slashed-zero option. Prepare a heading containing parentheses and a numerical code containing both O and 0. Compare each feature in a capable application before manually moving punctuation. Keep a reference showing the feature settings so the layout can be reproduced after a wording change. For an independent sans comparison, use Inter with the same words; its appearance and controls are its own, not Plain’s.

Optimo’s feature list includes proportional and tabular figures in lining and oldstyle arrangements. Build one compact opening-hours table and one sentence containing a date. Compare the numerals within each complete piece of content rather than deciding from an isolated number row. Where columns must align, compare the result with the actual application’s tab or table settings as well as the font feature. Manrope supplies another independent comparison. The homepage Unicode letter-style converter replaces characters; it does not install Plain or reproduce its OpenType controls.