Sainte Colombe
Specimen
Sainte Colombe In Use
Sternberg Press was founded by Caroline Schneider in New York City in 1999, initially as Lukas & Sternberg. After operating for a while from New York and Berlin, the company settled in London. The publishing house specializes in books on art, architecture, design, literature, and the critical discourse on all of these topics. In 2019, Sternberg Press equipped itself with a top-notch new website. For this purpose they contracted a team of three highly acclaimed studios for digital design. Berlin-based Knoth & Renner collaborated with Wkshps, located in Berlin and New York, to establish an expandable structure to present an ever growing catalog of titles whose front-end would be intuitive to navigate and highlight the beauty of the books themselves. Systemantics from Willich, Germany, contributed their WordPress programming power. The result is appealing and fun to use: the landing page starts with 3D-animated books flying onto the screen, sparking curiosity. The books presented can be clicked on in order to go deeper and learn more about their contents. The more steady subpages that present the titles as if they were photographed lying flat on a table likewise use animation – but in a modest way that doesn’t get in the way. The overview pages dedicated to themes and publishing lines as much as the single entry pages for each book use an abundant range of carefully chosen backdrop colors that make the presentation lively and appetizing. Every single entry page allows to flip through the given book in order to get an idea of its content and graphic design. On the secondary, service-oriented subpages color is used in gradients on the typefaces rendering the text. Speaking of type, apart from the Sternberg Press logotype (which is set in Perpetua Italic), the website mixes two faces: the sans-serif Proto Grotesk and the seriffed Sainte Colombe, both published by Production Type from Paris, France. Sainte Colombe by Yoann Minet is used for most of the reading texts. It is a Roman meandering between Renaissance and Classicism, rigorous in rhythm but generous with regards to idiosyncratic liberties in letterforms. Proto Grotesk is Jean-Baptiste Levée’s take on a quirky German sans of the 1880s. On the website it is used as a companion typeface to the first, rendering categories and info texts, marking a clear break on an informational level.
Sainte Colombe Light + Proto Grotesk Bold
Sternberg Press websiteSainte Colombe is the typeface chosen by POST for the packaging and the website of Evermore London Candles. The delicate serif by Production Type appears in raised caps to present the fragrance names on the colored boxes. It’s contrasted with a logo set in the sans-serif LL Brown. Sainte Colombe also serves on the website, where it’s used for body copy in journal posts and for description texts in the online shop. Here it’s combined with Suisse Int’l (headings) and Courier New (labels and buttons).
Sainte Colombe Regular
Evermore London Candles
Information
Design
Team
Version
1.002Awards & distinctions
About this font
There are lovely details designers will immediately notice: the lowercase italic g, its notched stem curving into itself—a flat note in the company of sharps. The lowercase a across all the styles are beautifully stern, and the firm buoyancy across the caps give gravitas to titling settings. The shapes of Sainte Colombe don’t necessarily conform to a tool—a subtle discordance that was inspired by the still-life painting, “Le Dessert de Gaufrettes,” (Still-Life with Wafer Biscuits) in which all the cast shadows are illogical. The irregularity of Sainte Colombe’s glyphs is suitably counterbalanced by a quiet, classical stability across the typeface.
Sainte Colombe has a beautiful texture and color when set in text. It’s delicate, but its proportions keep it warm. In heavier weights it does gain contrast, so these letters should be handled with care in color and with image. The effect will be the slow and deliberate adagio, not a crescendo—fitting for a typeface named after Jean de Sainte Colombe, a 17th-Century French composer and violist credited with influentially adding a seventh string to the instrument. The typeface’s unique sharpness, flagrant serifs, and open counters brim with musical resonance.
Formats
Static (OTF, TTF, WOFF, WOFF2)Language support
Acheron, Achinese, Acholi, Afar, Afrikaans, Alekano, Aleut, Amahuaca, Amarakaeri, Amis, Anaang, Andaandi, Dongolawi, Anuta, Ao Naga, Aragonese, Arbëreshë Albanian, Arvanitika Albanian, Asháninka, Ashéninka Perené, Asu (Tanzania), Atayal, Balinese, Bari, Basque, Batak Dairi, Batak Karo, Batak Mandailing, Batak Simalungun, Batak Toba, Bemba (Zambia), Bena (Tanzania), Bikol, Bislama, Borana-Arsi-Guji Oromo, Bosnian, Breton, Buginese, Candoshi-Shapra, Caquinte, Cashibo-Cacataibo, Catalan, Cebuano, Central Aymara, Central Kurdish, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chiga, Chiltepec Chinantec, Chokwe, Chuukese, Cimbrian, Cofán, Congo Swahili, Cook Islands Māori, Cornish, Corsican, Creek, Crimean Tatar, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dehu, Dutch, Eastern Arrernte, Eastern Oromo, Embu, English, Ese Ejja, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Friulian, Galician, Ganda, Ga’anda, German, Gheg Albanian, Gilbertese, Gooniyandi, Gourmanchéma, Guadeloupean Creole French, Gusii, Haitian, Hani, Hiligaynon, Ho-Chunk, Hopi, Huastec, Hungarian, Icelandic, Iloko, Inari Sami, Indonesian, Irish, Istro Romanian, Italian, Ixcatlán Mazatec, Jamaican Creole English, Japanese, Javanese, Jola-Fonyi, K'iche', Kabuverdianu, Kala Lagaw Ya, Kalaallisut, Kalenjin, Kamba (Kenya), Kaonde, Karelian, Kashubian, Kekchí, Kenzi, Mattokki, Khasi, Kikuyu, Kimbundu, Kinyarwanda, Kituba (DRC), Kongo, Konzo, Kuanyama, Kven Finnish, Kölsch, Ladin, Ladino, Latgalian, Ligurian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low German, Lower Sorbian, Luba-Lulua, Lule Sami, Luo (Kenya and Tanzania), Luxembourgish, Macedo-Romanian, Makhuwa, Makhuwa-Meetto, Makonde, Makwe, Malagasy, Malaysian, Maltese, Mandinka, Manx, Maore Comorian, Maori, Mapudungun, Matsés, Mauritian Creole, Meriam Mir, Meru, Minangkabau, Mirandese, Mohawk, Montenegrin, Munsee, Murrinh-Patha, Mwani, Mískito, Naga Pidgin, Ndonga, Neapolitan, Ngazidja Comorian, Niuean, Nobiin, Nomatsiguenga, North Ndebele, Northern Kurdish, Northern Qiandong Miao, Northern Sami, Northern Uzbek, Norwegian, Nyanja, Nyankole, Occitan, Orma, Oroqen, Palauan, Paluan, Pampanga, Papiamento, Pedi, Picard, Pichis Ashéninka, Piemontese, Pijin, Pintupi-Luritja, Pohnpeian, Polish, Portuguese, Potawatomi, Quechua, Romanian, Romansh, Rotokas, Rundi, Rwa, Samburu, Samoan, Sango, Sangu (Tanzania), Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Sena, Seri, Seselwa Creole French, Shambala, Shawnee, Shipibo-Conibo, Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Soga, Somali, Soninke, South Ndebele, Southern Aymara, Southern Qiandong Miao, Southern Sami, Southern Sotho, Spanish, Sranan Tongo, Standard Estonian, Standard Latvian, Standard Malay, Sundanese, Swahili, Swati, Swedish, Swiss German, Tagalog, Tahitian, Taita, Tedim Chin, Tetum, Tetun Dili, Tiv, Tok Pisin, Tokelau, Tonga (Tonga Islands), Tosk Albanian, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen, Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Uab Meto, Ume Sami, Upper Guinea Crioulo, Upper Sorbian, Venetian, Veps, Võro, Walloon, Walser, Wangaaybuwan-Ngiyambaa, Waray (Philippines), Warlpiri, Wayuu, Welsh, West Central Oromo, Western Abnaki, Western Frisian, Wik-Mungkan, Wiradjuri, Wolof, Xhosa, Yanesha', Yao, Yapese, Yindjibarndi, Yucateco, Zulu, Záparo
About the designers
Yoann Minet
Designer
Yoann Minet is an École Estienne alumni where he grew an attire in both cultural aspects of type design and folklore. His works span from the most traditional aspects of text typefaces to utterly contemporary designs. He is the co-founder of the design studio Bureau Brut.
Glyphs
OpenType Features
Case-Sensitive Forms
[CASE-SENSITIVE] !¡?¿-–—()[]{}‹›«»·
offSmall Capitals
Small Capitals
offSmall Capitals From Capitals
SMALL CAPITALS
offStandard Ligatures
fichier flicker affliger
offDiscretionary Ligatures
Thesaurus
offSlashed Zero
0123456789
offLining Figures
H0123456789
offOldstyle Figures
H0123456789
offProportional Figures
H0123456789
offTabular Figures
H0123456789
offSuperscript
H012345679
offScientific Inferiors
H012345679
offNumerators
H012345679
offDenominators
H012345679
offFractions
1/4 1/2 3/4
offOrdinals
2a 2o No.
offOrnaments
+ − ± × ÷ = < >
offStylistic Set 1
012345678910
offStylistic Set 2
012345678910
offStylistic Set 3
<>+−×÷=±
offStylistic Set 4
abcdef
offPair well with Sainte Colombe
Sainte Colombe Regular Gemeli Micro RegularUseful type with an edge.
Creates versatile, expressive, and functional fonts
Sainte Colombe Bold Proto Slab RegularUseful type with an edge.
Creates versatile, expressive, and functional fonts
Sainte Colombe Light Mars Extended RegularUseful type with an edge.
Creates versatile, expressive, and functional fonts
Recommended fonts
Trianon Caption Light Trianon CaptionModern Typefaces
10 styles
Cardinal Classic Mid Regular Cardinal Classic MidModern Typefaces
8 styles