Stratum 2: background and attribution
Eric Olson designed Stratum for Process Type Foundry. Its documented development expanded the family with Greek and Cyrillic, broader numeral options, refined metrics and italics. The foundry credits Egor Golovyrin and Maria Doreuli for Cyrillic and George Triantafyllakos for Greek work.
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.
Forms, styles and what to inspect
Stratum 2 uses flat terminations for a more uniform appearance; the related Stratum 1 has sharply angled endings. The current specifications list upright and italic resources across six weights for each branch. Those designed differences should be assessed directly rather than inferred from the shared geometric family name.
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.
Try it in a real layout
Compare a short sports heading, an interface label and a numeric score. Inspect terminal shapes in the actual words before deciding between the branches. Check the selected edition's script coverage and italic availability when replacing older files, since the family has expanded over time.
For independent comparisons, try Russo One and Michroma. Use the same wording and approximate output size. The related style guide provides broader design context.
Official preview and font resources
Use Process Type Foundry to try the original and investigate the files, styles and terms for your intended workflow. This site does not distribute or serve Stratum 2 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.
Your questions, answered.
How does Stratum 2 differ from Stratum 1?
The foundry describes flat terminations in Stratum 2 and sharp angled terminations in Stratum 1.
Does an older Stratum file include current features?
Not necessarily. The publisher documents later additions to scripts, numerals, metrics and italics, so compare the version you actually have.
Which writing systems do the current specifications list?
The cited specifications list Latin, Cyrillic and Greek, with collaborators credited for the Greek and Cyrillic development.
Sources & background
Sources supporting this page’s explanations. Practical examples are our editorial suggestions.