"Hermetico" is a tribute to Hermes 3000 typewriter "Techno" font. It comes in three styles: Regular, Emphasised and Cameo. You can download the files here.
Not long ago I fell in love with the design of Hermes 3000 typewriter "Techno" font (there are three slightly different styles under this name: "Tecnho Pica" [12pt], "Techno Special" [10pt?] and "Techno Elite" [10pt]).
I looked for some digital revivals of this wonderful typeface, but I could not find one that really satisfied me. There are indeed some digital interpretation of Hermes 3000 "Techno" font, but to my eyes there was always something missing.
I think that closest digital font to the Techno typeface is "Magda", by Cornel Windlin. It is a really beautiful typeface, but I feel like it is a little too fuzzy. And, of course, it does not come for free.
So, since I was unhappy with the existing solutions, I tried to create my own version of this typeface, even if I was totally unexperienced as a type designer.
My original idea was to create a font that had exactly the same character set of a Hermes 3000 equipped with the "Techno" font. But as soon as I started working on the project, I understood that there was not just one character set: character sets changed depending on the year in which the typewriters were produced and on the target market.
Since I worked mainly on specimens coming from two different typewriters – respectively produced in 1968 and 1970, and each with some peculiarities in the character sets – I thought that there was no point in sticking to the set of just one model. So I relied mostly on the 1970 Hermes typewriter, but I included also some shapes that were not in my main source, but that I found on the 1968 model. I also added some glyphs that I found on a more recent model, produced since 1971. If you are interested in knowing which were the original character sets of each typewriter, you can see them here.
The more I worked on the font, the more I convinced myself that I had to include some characters that were not in the "original" sets. However, in adding the new glyphs, I tried to be as faithful to my sources as possible, using only shapes that were already in the character sets and transforming them to fit the new purpose (kind of "philological" approach, isn’t it?).
As an example, I added "guillemets" angle quotes (« »), which were missing on the typewriters: but I designed the glyphs starting from the shape of the circumflex accent (ˆ). Here you can see "Hermetico"'s complete list of glyphs.
Some of the modern digital typefaces inspired by typewriters fonts have a huge drawback: they do not offer the possibility to emphasise the text, since the italic style is missing in the original source. But we all know that, when using a typewriter, one can emphasise the text by underlining it.
With that in mind, I have created an Italic style for "Hermetico", which is nothing more than the Regular style, but underlined. If you install both the styles on your computer, you will be able to emphasise your text, if needed. For obvious reasons, there is no "Bold" style for the font, but I created a Cameo style that I think can be quite useful.
As I said, I am not a professional type designer, but I do love fonts and I wanted to share my work with the typeface-lovers community.
I hope that you like the results of my efforts. If you have any comments or suggestions, please contact me.
The whole process was pretty straightforward. I worked on high resolution scans of typewritten specimens. At first I adjusted the scans with open-source graphics editors, cleaning the images as well as I could. Then I traced the images and worked on them with the most common open-source font editors available... And that's pretty much it!
"Hermetico" project is still ongoing. I am currently working on some adjustments and I am considering adding few glyphs, so you can expect some news in the near future. Since the project is still under development there could be bugs that I am not aware of, please keep that in mind when you use the fonts.
"Hermetico" is free under the terms of the SIL Open Fonts License (OFL). That means you can do what you want to with the fonts as long as you: 1) retain the ofl notice, even if you distribute it in a modified form; 2) don’t sell them on their own; 3) don’t claim they were your work.
"Hermetico" would not have been possible without the friendly help of Acme Type Machine Company and Leigh, who provided me the specimens to work on. I owe you a huge THANK YOU : )
Ciao, Lorenzo.