Phonic is a sans-serif typeface family that can deliver messages in a clear voice. It’s characterized by a design of technical precision, with visual details that appeal to the senses and make it stand out from the crowd.

Whenever two strokes meet in an angle smaller than 90 degrees – think letters with diagonals, or such where a curve branches off from a stem – the junction gets rounded. Phonic isn’t soft throughout, though. Other corners are as sharp as one would expect. The result is a compelling mix of straight and round, which brings machine-made lettering to mind. More specifically, it recalls signs made with routed or engraved letters. There, it’s due to the limitations of how the milling head can move. Here, it’s a stylistic feature that makes the typeface’s timbre. Subtle when soft-spoken (in lighter weights and smaller sizes), and conspicuous on the opposite end of the spectrum.

The central theme of Phonic is precision. Inner forms in glyphs like ‘b’ or ‘g’ are perfectly smooth and undisturbed by the verticals, with the volume of the white balanced against the black. The italics slope exactly as much as is required to set themselves apart in text. But precision shouldn’t be confused with strict uniformity. On occasion, the rational approach is broken up by a human touch: while most strokes are terminated perpendicularly, some end diagonally, inserting an element that evokes a sensory impression. The round dots play to this affable quality as well. Phonic’s proportions aren’t condensed, but compact. Every letterform is just as wide as necessary. This can be observed in round lowercase glyphs, which are slightly oblong. At the same time, the letters are spaced generously to perform at medium to small sizes, and Phonic produces an even color in paragraphs. When used large, you might want to reduce the tracking slightly to amplify the impact.

Along with Phonic’s roman and italic styles, there is also Phonic Mono. The monospaced styles enter a game with different rules, embracing the limitations of fixed character widths and emphasizing the allure of the technical. Both subfamilies were drawn in four weights from Light to Bold. A set of stylistic alternates allows you to replace the round dots and punctuation marks with square ones.