so i'm looking on the net for the history of the font "runic condensed" cuz i'm a fan of the videogame series "final fantasy" and i can't find any mention of the rest of the font family. why is "condensed" the only style of "runic mt" to be digitized and what happened to the rest of the family??
I don't see any reason why there were other widths. Do they appear in Final Fantasy?
There are two typefaces in the Stephenson, Blake & Co specimen, third edition (ca. 1920s) that have the appellation of "Runic." One is called Lining Bold Runic; the other is Lining Runic Elongated. Monotype's Runic Condensed is closely related to the latter. But these weren't a unified family and have only some shared stylistic traits.
The concept of a unified family of weights and widths was only just taking shape at that time period and was not all-pervasive. Off-beat styles like this didn't usually get the "family treatment."
So I doubt that Monotype ever had a unified family of Runic styles. I believe there was only ever this one.
Why the "Condensed" in the name? I believe that Runic was used as a generic style designation -- like Latin or Egyptian. So this is Monotype's interpretation of a condensed, Runic-style typeface.
-- K.
Captured from web.archive.org on 10 Jan 2015. view this capture