Magma with Cycles — Typophile archive

Jeffrey19 February 2010 · 00:52

Hi all,

I recently bought Cycles 11, which I am very excited about! And I spend some time on the Stone Type Foundry website, and I'm quite interested in Magma. Can you tell me what you think of Magma? I think it is very hard to judge from the screen, because of the fine details and tapered strokes. It reminds me a bit of Optima. I have one book set in Optima, which is alright, not great though. How do you rate Magma as a book typeface (an unusual one). And do you think it would make a good combination with cycles, when used on the same page together?

Alternatively, do you know other sans-serifs that would go well with Cycles?

THX Jeffrey

Florian Hardwig19 February 2010 · 06:04

I find Magma an excellent reading sans. The contrast is way less pronounced than in Optima, the tapering gives Magma a lively character. It’s not unlike Syntax, but fresher and more versatile. You can judge it on paper: the printable specimen pdfs that are available on the Stone Type Foundry’s website are very helpful.

Note that there is an economic ‘Compact’ family in between the standard and the Condensed.
Furthermore, Sumner Stone has extended the superfamily (which originally started out with Basalt – two sets of signage caps incl. arrows) with slightly heavier Halo grades, light Titling weights plus matching archaic Roman forms (Numa), an accompanying uncial (Munc), and a softened spin-off, Tuff.

I haven’t combined Magma with Cycles, but they should work together quite well. You’ll find more options for accompanying sans-serifs in this list.