Okay maybe it’s a bit of a stretch for the series, but to demonstrate the typographic possibilities of one of my favorite new faces (that also happens to fit perfectly with Wedding Month), today we pair Ramiro Espinoza’s calligraphy & engraving-inspired Medusa with itself—its own contrasting set of engraved Roman small caps. This is a rare mix of styles in a single font, but ultimately a very useful one as there’s never a question of what size to set the Roman in relation to the script. It’s designed to always be set at the same size.
Scripts legendarily take up space, both vertical and horizontal. When designing with Medusa, rather than push back at its demand for more space, I design with this requirement in mind, set the type at an appropriate scale to the medium, and give ample room by saying only what needs to be said.
The small caps mix in stylistically, but stand up with their own voice when occasion calls. The font also contains a set of decorative swashes and embellished swash caps.
Tip on using small caps
The above small caps are accessible via OpenType. To set Medusa in small caps, first, highlight the text. Then, from the top right corner of the Character panel in InDesign, choose OpenType > All Small Caps, or begin typing ‘small caps’ into Quick Apply and hit enter. If you’re in Photoshop or Illustrator, choose Small Caps from the same menu at the top right of the Character panel. In another upcoming piece in the Using Type series, I’ll discuss how to access these features in other non-professional programs.
In tomorrow’s Using Type I’ll go into more detail on using scripts specific to wedding typography. Until then, thanks for reading Great Pairs. Another great pair will be here Wednesday.
