Typewriter B Font

B is for Brother (a robin-egg blue Brother De Luxe portable typewriter in not particularly good condition). It is fitted with a Pica font.

Print at 10 point to match original typewriter size and pitch. Default line spacing at that size is 12 point (120%) and matches single linespacing on the typewriter (6 lines per inch). Double linespacing is 240%.

The classic release has all the glyphs that the typewriter prints.

The extended release (on early access) has many more glyphs, and some OpenType Layout features for “fine typography”. Including Fediverse Symbol ⁂, curly quotes, dashes, small figures for superior and inferior numbers, a fuller set of fractions, additional language support, astronomical symbols, wayfinding arrows, and so on.

At 10 point text the horizontal frequency is 10.9 characters-per-inch, again matching the typewriter samples (it can be adjusted to 10cpi, see OpenType Features).

In addition to the usual OpenType Layout features required by language support, fractions, and smaller numbers (locl, subs, sinf, sups, frac and so on), there are two custom OpenType Features:

• ss02 Pica Pitch 10cpi, adjusts all widths so that the horizontal pitch is 10 characters per inch, matching the common typewriter pica pitch.
• ss01 Roseum One, replaces the 1 (one) glyph—normally a clone of l (little letter L)—with a clone of I (capital i), matching the preference of Roseum Team.

The typewriter has a half-position feature, accessed by holding down the space bar and then typing a letter. In partial emulation of this, this font has a half-width space: the Unicode character U+2004 THREE-PER-EM SPACE.

Release Notes

In addition to the releases mentioned here, other early access version were made. Contact me if you want access.

2025-10-01 first official release.

After the 2025-10 release, all new glyphs are ones that are not found on the typewriter.

2026-01-14 extended repertoire, early access.

Many Latin script languages are supported with accented letters, including Welsh, Slovenian, Māori, Irish, and Ento. Including for written Irish traditional dotted lenition (ḃ, ċ, ḋ and so on), ⁊ Tironian Et. Basic Middle-Welsh is supported.

This release also incorporates Astronomical Symbols and other changes made for Advent of Type.

And a bonus BIRD.

Added

• curly quotes, guillemet (quotes for French);
• bullet, lozenge, ballot boxes
• upside down exclamation and question mark (Spanish);
• minus, divide ÷, multiply ×, NOT SIGN ¬, and degree;
• numbersign #, <, >, ∴, ∵
• (square) brackets;
• em- and en-dashes, vertical bars, and arrows;
• fractions, all the Unicode fractions you can draw with the existing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8;
• superior and inferior numbers;
• Enough accents to support Welsh, Slovenian, Māori, and Ento, largely following Koeberlin Latin S: grave, acute, circumflex, macron, dot (above), diaeresis, caron (háček), diaeresis below;
• Þ þ Å å Ů ů
• Tironian Et (Irish);
• Middle-Welsh LL and V: U+1EFA U+1EFC U+1EFB U+1EFD
• Astronomical Symbols: SUN, (the planets) MERCURY, FEMALE SIGN (Venus), EARTH, MALE SIGN (Mars), JUPITER, SATURN, ASTRONOMICAL SYMBOL FOR URANUS, NEPTUNE, (the asteroids) CERES, PALLAS, JUNO, VESTA FORM TWO.
• U+1F426 BIRD (a robin)