Ἡ οἰκογένεια KSElea ἀποτελεῖ ἕνα σχεδιαστικὸ πείραμα στὴν κατεύθυνση τῆς ἀναζήτησης μιᾶς δύσκολης (ἰδανικῆς;) ἰσοῤῥοπίας ἀνάμεσα σὲ μιὰ σύγχρονη γραφιστικὴ τοῦ χαρακτήρα καὶ στὴ δεδομένη -ἱστορικὰ- φόρμα τοῦ βυζαντινοῦ γράμματος. Ἡ ἐξαιρετικὴ καθαρότητα τῶν γραμμῶν κάνουν τὴν Elea κατάλληλη γιὰ τίτλους, σὲ Text μὲ ἀκρέμονες (τύπου Times). Mπορεῖ, ἐπίσης, νὰ χρησιμοποιηθεῖ μὲ ἐπιτυχία σὲ μικρῆς ἔκτασης Text. Περιλαμβάνει δύο ὁμάδες, τὴν KSElea (κανονικοῦ πλάτους) καὶ τὴν KSEleaXt ποὺ εἶναι πεπλατυσμένη. Kαὶ οἱ δύο ὁμάδες περιέχουν πλάγια.

It’s a font that is based on the famous “Grecs du Roi”. In the middle of 16th century, Francisco the 1st, who wanted to encourage the Hellenistic studies in France, ordered this font that was going to monopolize the typographic interest for almost a couple of centuries in Europe. The so-called “French Royal Greek fonts” imprint the writing of the Cretan Angelo Vergikios and are engraved by the great Claude Garamond. It’s a font that circulated in many versions, and the biggest counted about 430 letters.

It’s the integral font of the above one (KSGrec). It contains only a part of the 367 ligatures and abbreviations of Grecs du Roi. These were types that used to give a complicated type founding, but yet granted a unique esthetic to the text. A proper and moderate use of ligatures in KSGreg results a script with “a spiritual aroma” and an obvious “ancient shade”.

It is a font with simple and austere lines. The types are equal in width, so that the text is easily readable and effective, but poetic and trendy at the same time. As a result one can harmonically combine Latin and Greek characters without visual or esthetic excesses. It is a font that gives the text a more casual style and it is suitable for those cases that we have a capacity of Latin characters. It consists of KSHeleniePoly and KSHelenieMono in Normal, Italic and Semi Bold style (each).

It is a font based on scripts of “Synopsis of Histories” written by Ioannis Skylitzis, a columnist of the Byzantine era (10th A.D. century) [code a.26-2 National Library of Madrid, Spain). The types are designed in a free manner to save the spirit and beauty of the original. The original code does not use any capitals except some single, decorative Archigrammas. For that reason the capitals are designed from the beginning, as close as possible to the original spirit.

KSLato was born almost from nowhere, while observing a marble sign at Vlatades Monastery at Thessaloniki, Greece, on a Sunday morning! Poetic but lightsome at the same time, it is a font for heavy “missions”. It includes many ligatures, alternatives and OpenType features.

Ἡ γραμματοσειρὰ KSMeteora βασίστηκε σὲ μιὰ ἁπλή, κεφαλαιογράμματη γραφή, ἐμπνευσμένη ἀπὸ παλαιὰ χειρόγραφα τῶν Mοναστηριῶν τῶν Mετεώρων. Ὑπάρχουν δύο βασικοὶ τύποι, ἡ KSVarlaam καὶ ἡ KSStefanos. Ἡ πρώτη ἔχει σχεδιαστεῖ μὲ ἐλεύθερο περίγραμμα καὶ περισσότερα διακοσμητικὰ στολίδια καὶ ἀπολήξεις, ἐνῶ ἡ δεύτερη διαθέτει μιὰ πιὸ λιτὴ καὶ αὐστηρὴ γραμμή, καὶ σχεδιασμένο περίγραμμα. Ἀπὸ τὸν τύπο Varlaam, μὲ διάφορους συνδυασμοὺς μὲ διακοσμητικὰ ὑπόβαθρα, προέρχονται οἱ τύποι Asmenos, Anapafsas καὶ Rousanos. Ἀπὸ τὸν τύπο Stefanos, οἱ τύποι Trias καὶ Nikolaos. Ἑπτὰ ἰδανικὲς σειρὲς γιὰ χρήση πρωτογραμμάτων σὲ μεγάλης ἔκτασης κείμενα.

Ἡ γραμματοσειρὰ KSProtogram ἔχει σχεδιαστεῖ μὲ ἀφετηρία τὰ χειρόγραφα ἀρχιγράμματα τοῦ μεγάλου ἁγιογράφου καὶ σχεδιαστὴ Ῥάλλη Kοψίδη. Ἀποτελεῖ μιὰ ἰδανικὴ μορφὴ διακοσμητικῶν κεφαλαίων σὲ μικρὸ ―κυρίως― μέγεθος. Xαρακτηρίζονται ἀπὸ τὴν πρωτότυπη χρήση τῶν καμπύλων διακοσμητικῶν γύρω ἀπὸ τὸν χαρακτήρα. Ἡ οἰκογένεια Protogram περιλαμβάνει τὰ 24 κεφαλαία ἑλληνικά, βασικὲς μορφὲς τονισμοῦ καὶ μιὰ σειρὰ κεφαλαίων μὲ ἐξωτερικὸ περίγραμμα γιὰ πιὸ ἐξεζητημένες παρουσιάσεις.

The basic lines of this font come from the manuscripts of Photios Kontoglou, the famous Greek painter in 50ies. It is a poetic and lightsome writing, ideal for a literary text or anything that does not require austerity. It is provided in Normal, Italic, Light and SemiBold weights.