Linotype's Compatil family has a double-storey a and a single-storey g in all four of its typefaces (both serif families, and in the slab serif and sans serif family, too). http://www.linotype.com/94405/compatil-clan.html

Double-storied a and single-storied g on Antykwa Torunska, Benguiat, Birch... to name but three at the start of the alphabet...
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Hi Nicole,

here are a few older threads about single-storey or infant alternates:
Frutiger Infant
"Schoolbook" Alternates
Single storey g but double decker a
Question concerning the lowercase g and a

The first one has a link to the website of the Typographic Design for Children Project (kidstype.org), where you can find some research results about infant characters.

are there any serif-fonts […] with double-storied a but one-storied g

Štorm has a preference for this combination, see his Aichel, Amor (Sans and Serif), Mramor, Negro, …

F

> examples of typefaces which provide alternatives (both styles)

Trilby, by David Jonathan Ross, (which happens to be the current Featured Face here) includes single-story alternates for both in a stylistic set.

Gabriola (with secondary and contextual variants as well as ‘corsiva’ forms of a and g):

By the way, ‘guidance’ is a good test word for this because it puts the d and a next to each other. One of the things I note about single-storey a is that the counter and bowl always appear slightly larger than that of d if actually the same size. In Gabriola, and in italic fonts, I optically compensate by making the a slightly narrower than the d.

thank you for all those exampes !

but may I also ask for your opinion (as probably more expierenced type-designer and/or type-user): is it useful to have these alternatives? for which kind of effect could it be useful? when do you think does it make sense?

the explanation of the features of trilby calls the single-storied version ‘schoolbook-version’ (some of your other suggestions lead into this direction as well). it covers connotations like simpleness and reduction and this fits to the context of this geometric, constructed style.

do you know about other purposes for which the double- or one-storied variants are typical? (like: one-storied for reading from distances, two-storied for text-sizes ...just a guess)

nicole

Personally, I don't think these variants are generally useful. In effect, they are mixing different styles of lettering within a single typeface, so the question should be in what circumstances is this desirable or useful. Gabriola is a hybrid typeface by design, intended to be able to support this kind of variation by providing a base design that combines elements of formal and cursive lettering, such that it can be pushed in either direction by the use of different variant sets. But single-storey letters in the context of roman types always seems weird to me, like a woman in an evening gown wearing combat boots. There's nothing wrong with combat boots: they just belong with a different style of dressing.

are there any serif-fonts...with double-storied a but one-storied g

Versailles

My recent release Organon Sans has those characters as separate style sets: 'a' as style set 1, 'g' as style set 2 and 'y' as style set 3, so that they can be mix-and-matched if so desired. It can be useful if the user knows what they are doing, for example a double storey 'g' may be desired for text setting, single for headings.

BTW John, I just love Gabriola.

Nick Cooke

thank you nick! do you possibly have any pictures from this typeface in use ?? I thought as next step in my research it were helpful to collect examples to see how different combinations work in a certain context.

but thanks anyway, it's a pretty nice example for all the possible combinations!