Lato (typeface)

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Lato
CategorySans-serif
ClassificationHumanist
Designer(s)Łukasz Dziedzic
Date releasedDecember 2010[1]
LicenseSIL Open Font License[2]
Websitewww.latofonts.com/lato-free-fonts/
Latest release version3.100.dev2

Lato is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Łukasz Dziedzic. It was released in 2010.[3] The name "Lato" is Polish for "summer".[4]

As of August 2018, Lato is used on more than 9.6 million websites, and is the third most served font on Google Fonts, with over one billion views per day.[2]

Use[edit]

Lato has been used in various physical publications, including information signs and election campaign billboards.[5] It is the main font used on iCollege, Georgia State University's primary learning management system, and the official typeface of the Polish Government and the polish bank Bank Pekao.

Development[edit]

Lato was created in 2010 for a Polish bank by Łukasz Dziedzic.[1] When the bank changed its stylistic vision, he shelved the typeface,[1] and released it later that year under the libre SIL Open Font License.[2][4]

After Lato was added to Google Fonts it quickly gained popularity,[6] becoming the third most used web font after Google's own Roboto and Open Sans, with over one billion views per day as of August 2018.[7]

Carlito is a forked typeface which is very similar to Lato, it is released by Google with metrics compatible with Microsoft's Calibri typeface.

Language support[edit]

Lato supports all Latin alphabets, along with Cyrillic, Greek, and IPA.[8]

Derivatives[edit]

Lato weights
Roman
Italic

The Lato typeface is available in nine weights from hairline to black, each of which has a distinct italic variant.[3] Each of these 18 variants is additionally available in a Lato Latin version, containing just the subset of glyphs required for European languages based on the Latin alphabet; this allows for smaller file sizes.[3]

An update to Lato was made in 2014 with additional glyphs. This updated version was marketed as “Lato 2.0”.[9]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Martyna Trykozko, Lato podbija świat, czyli jak nieudane zlecenie doprowadziło do spektakularnego sukcesu Polaka, Gazeta.pl, 18 September 2015
  2. ^ a b c "Lato". Google Fonts. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  3. ^ a b c latofonts.com, The Fonts
  4. ^ a b Jeremiah Shoaf, Taking A Second Look At Free Fonts, published in Typography: Practical Considerations And Design Patterns, Smashing Magazine GmbH, 2014, p. 39
  5. ^ Łukasz Majchrzyk, Font „Lato” światowym sukcesem Łukasza Dziedzica, mobiRANK, 21 September 2015
  6. ^ "Lato". Print & Publishing (in Polish). No. 211. 8 December 2015. p. 18. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  7. ^ Google Fonts, Analytics
  8. ^ Antoni Bohdanowicz, "Z czcionką jest jak z krzesłem, najpierw musi być wygodne, a dopiero potem artystyczne" – mówi typograf Łukasz Dziedzic, na:Temat, 6 April 2014
  9. ^ "Lato fonts". Lato. Retrieved 18 January 2021.

External links[edit]