In this post, I’m attempting a retrospective of the interesting things – new fonts! – that where published by the Google Fonts project throughout the year 2022.
1. Outfit
It started in January with the release of Outfit, a geometric sans available as a variable font. Designed by Rodrigo Fuenzalida, a designer from Santiago, Chile, Outfit is the corporate typeface of brand automation company Outfit.io.
2. Roboto Serif
In February, Google released Roboto Serif, a variable font family with 6 optical sizes. Roboto Serif was designed for Google by Greg Gazdowicz of Commercial Type. It is described as “minimal, functional, and comfortable to read practically anywhere”. Gazdowicz states that “In some ways, this is a proof of concept in the world for variable fonts. We wanted to make a showpiece of a vanilla text typeface for comfortable reading that can be finely adjusted”.
3. Plus Jakarta Sans
+Jakarta Sans (also Plus Jakarta Sans) is a versatile modern type family designed by Gumpita Rahayu from Tokotype, who describes it as “a fresh take on geometric sans serif styles”. The fonts were originally commissioned by 6616 Studio for Jakarta Provincial Government program’s +Jakarta City of Collaboration identity in 2020. The font includes some alternate sets that transform the letter shapes.
4. Radio-Canada
The Radio-Canada font was created in 2017 by Montreal-based designer and typographer Charles Daoud, in collaboration with Coppers and Brasses and Alexandre Saumier Demers. It was designed specifically for CBC/Radio-Canada as a brand unifying information font for all the Public Broadcaster’s platforms.
5. Noto Emoji
On April 29, the Noto Emoji font was released. A black and white emoji font, that works like any other font you might use: You can change any character’s color, size and weight. Noto Emoji is also a variable font.
6. Roboto Flex
On May 5, Google released Roboto Flex : a rebirth of Roboto as an extremely flexible variable font, offering a huge range of weights and widths across a complete stack of optical sizes. Roboto Flex was designed by Font Bureau to be super scalable, adaptable, customizable, and optimizable.
7. Familjen Grotesk
May 18: Familjen Grotesk – a sans serif variable font with a weight axis. By Familjen STHLM AB, an advertising and design-bureau located in Stockholm, Sweden.
8. Finlandica
July: Finlandica by Helsinki Type Studio is a variable font with a weight axis (Regular to Bold). The strong and compressed shapes embody a traditional virtue in Finnish culture: honest and resilient determination.
9. Albert Sans
Also released in July: Albert Sans, designed by Andreas Rasmussen (a.Foundry), a geometric sans serif family, including ten weights from Thin to Black. It is inspired by the type-characteristics of Scandinavian architects and designers in the early 20th century.
10. Figtree
September: release of Figtree, a clean yet friendly geometric sans serif font for usage in web and mobile apps, designed by Erik Kennedy. It comes as a variable font with 7 legacy weights, Light through Black.
11. Sono
November: Sono by Tyler Finck is a soft monospace (or proportional!) variable font. It has a weight axis (ExtraLight – ExtraBold) and the default style is fixed-width (not kerned). But thanks to a “mono” axis, you can make the design proportional!
12. Unbounded
December: Unbounded, commissioned by the Polkadot blockchain. Designed by NaN, an exploratory and service-driven type design practice.
The year 2022 also saw the addition of several “classic” fonts to the Google Fonts library: Hanken Grotesk (previously known as HK Grotesk) by Alfredo Marco Pradil, Silkscreen by Jason Kottke, League Gothic and League Spartan by the League of Moveable Type.