Figgins Sans has all the bells and whistles.

So it does, and it's a very well-executed design too. But how well does it work with Warnock?

Same issue with the ClearType fonts, although I suppose Candara might do if I were to fiddle with the setting. Informa may be a possibility. Perhaps Underground also, although again it might get along better with a different text face.

Maybe I need to reconsider the Warnock part of it. Something more bland would be a lot easier to match.

My 2 cents:
I think the Figgins looks good beside Warnock.

But how well does it work with Warnock?

I couldn't say without setting comparative mixed text. Stylistically, the choice of "g" with either one or two bowls gives you some leeway. Similarly there is a plain (geometric) Greek and a stylistic alternative, more "scripty".

Warnock and Figgins are not equivalent in vertical metrics.
I don't have Warnock on my computer, so was not able to compare x-height, which is a crucial factor for mixed text, but it's not critical for x-height to be identical. I decided against that for the Modern Suite, finding that a Regular weight sans serif looks bigger than a serifed face of the same x-height.

Would you like to try it out?

I'd go with Geschke Sans Std.

But definitely not Gates Grot.

There must be a Steve Jobs, TrueType vs PostScript joke in there somewhere. Just too lazy to find it this afternoon.

Nick: Yes, I'd be interested to try it out. I did try MT Grotesque, which is the closest design I have to Figgins, and in some respects it worked well but the overall effect was kind of odd - partly vertical metrics (though this worked better if I set the Grot about 10% smaller) and partly spacing. From what I've seen in your specimen PDF I'd expect Figgins to work considerably better, though, and it certainly has all the features I need for this project.

Si: Geschke Sans...isn't that one only being distributed bundled with the Flash for iPad installer?

>Si: Geschke Sans...isn't that one only being distributed bundled with the Flash for iPad installer?

:-)

David, I would recommend that you pair Warnock with a humanist sans.

A number of intriguing possibilities suggest themselves, but the single best pairing for Warnock I can think of that has everything you require is Anselm Sans Pro (cf. My Fonts) from the Storm Type Foundry.

If the text face and its sans companion need to be mixed on the same line, in lieu of matching color and x-height, you may simply choose a single super-family such as the aforementioned Anselm Pro (a useful reinterpretation of the types of Jean Jannon). The exact relationship between the sans and the serif all depends on how intimately they are combined.

Thanks, Christopher. I guess I had been thinking of something with geometric tendencies due to the Art Deco-era inscriptional lettering that will be in many of the illustrations, but in terms of the type itself, I like the look of Anselm Sans. The Anselm superfamily as a whole is probably not viable for this job based on the client's objections to other text faces I had considered, but the sans looks like something that has a reasonably good chance of surviving the three or four people there who will have something to say about the design. The weight looks good, and I think the lack of Greek small caps will not be a problem, based on the portion of the manuscript I've worked on so far.

I don't know about your three points, but Items (http://www.items.nl/) uses Warnock and Akkurat really nicely together:

http://www.thonik.com/previewer.php?idnr=1058,1059

How quickly do you need this? The Hypatia Sans italics have been GM for a while and actually have a scheduled release date now. Contact me off-list if you want more details.

However, at 10.5/13 I'm wondering if it might be a little light in the regular weight? You'd want to try it out first if possible.

Regards,

T

Sans-serif faces with Latin, Greek and Cyrillic small caps in both roman and italic can be found among releases from Ascender Corp. (Candara) and Parachute (PF Centro Sans Pro, etc.).

Have you tried Myriad Pro? The Myriad Greek is really quite nice: better than many other Greek sans.

Myriad Pro

It hasn't small caps, though.

Thanks all, for the very useful ideas. I'll be meeting with the client tomorrow to get their preference from among a few options.

Re: Myriad: ironically, that's where I started from, until I discovered that I was going to need some small caps to represent properly what the author was trying to do. I also quite like its Greek, and in fact once added a koppa, a lunate epsilon, and a few other glyphs to it for a client....