Insight ∙ Original Font
Creating a New Precedent, 「SD Greta Sans」
Typotheque, a font foundry representing the Netherlands, offers a wide range of multilingual font families. Among them, 「Greta Sans」 is well known for supporting a variety of languages and weights. In October 2020, Typotheque collaborated with Sandoll to create the Korean font family 「Sandoll Greta Sans」 based on 「Greta Sans」.
Since its release, 「Sandoll Greta Sans」 has demonstrated wide-ranging use—from ‘title use,’ where it is prominently applied to book covers and posters, to ‘body text use,’ where it is used on websites and in relatively long-form text. While it has already received ample appreciation, Sandoll continued to explore ways to further enhance font usability and increase user satisfaction.
Although various ideas were discussed, once feasibility was taken into account, opinions naturally converged into two directions. The first was the addition of ‘italic,’ which would allow information hierarchy to be expressed in a more structured way. The second was the development of ‘variable,’ aimed at users who want more finely adjustable weights beyond the existing ten weights.
What this article seeks to discuss in detail is the new font family 「SD Greta Sans」*, which includes italics. At a glance, it may seem like simply adding italics to the already developed 「Sandoll Greta Sans」. However, contrary to that assumption, the process of releasing 「SD Greta Sans」 was far from straightforward.
*Sandoll changed the brand naming of its fonts from ‘Sadoll’ to ‘SD’ starting in March 2023. This naming applies to fonts released after March 2023.
How to use italics in an optimized way
A key feature of 「SD Greta Sans」, released in March 2023, is the addition of Latin italics. The newly added Latin italics went through an adjustment process in which their size was increased to 125%. This was a necessary adjustment to ensure harmony with Hangul when mixing Hangul and Latin text, particularly for punctuation and symbols.
*The 「Greta Sans」 italics by Typotheque were designed by Peter Bil’ak and released in 2012.
In fact, adjusting the Latin italics was the most challenging aspect of releasing 「SD Greta Sans」. Italic is a slanted style used in Latin scripts, but it is not a style commonly used in Hangul*.
Sandoll designer Kim Seulgi’s font 「Dalseul」 is a vertical semi-cursive font based on Joseon-era letter writing. As a Hangul style comparable to Latin italics, ‘heullim’ (cursive) can be cited, but it is difficult to say that it has been fully systematized in the same way as Latin italics. Nevertheless, many font designers continue to explore diverse typological approaches for Hangul, and it is therefore thought that one day in the future, Hangul italics may be added to 「SD Greta Sans」.
If no adjustment had been necessary, it would have been possible to release the font while keeping the Latin italics created by Typotheque as they were. However, the key criterion Sandoll’s designers focused on was “how users actually use fonts in real contexts.”
While it was not possible to review every domestic publication, as many cases as possible were examined. In summary, recent trends show that Latin italics are more often used together with Latin text, or on their own, rather than alongside Hangul.
Accordingly, the italics in 「SD Greta Sans」 were set to be optimized for standalone Latin use. Certain punctuation and symbols adjusted for harmonious use with Hangul are provided as additional glyphs. In InDesign, when the language setting is applied as ‘Korean,’ the adjusted italics are automatically activated, allowing for more convenient use.
From top to bottom, this is a typesetting example showing: Hangul with punctuation, Latin with punctuation, punctuation used when Latin italics are set to the ‘Korean’ language option, and the default punctuation for Latin italics. Depending on the user’s intent, punctuation adjusted to the size and position of Hangul can be used to achieve better harmony with Hangul, while the default punctuation can be used for more English-optimized typesetting when using Latin italics alone. In programs other than InDesign, this does not switch automatically based on language settings and is instead provided as alternate glyphs.
A New Font Family, 「SD Greta Sans」
At the same time, it was necessary to consider how the font should be released. A decision had to be made on whether to add Latin italics to 「Sandoll Greta Sans」, released in 2020, or to launch it as a new font family under the name 「SD Greta Sans」. If usage expansion alone were the priority, adding italics to the existing font would have been the logical choice.
However, including Latin italics would increase the number of weights from 10 to 20, creating an excessive level of complexity that could not be overlooked. From the perspective of enhancing font usability, it was also important to respect the usability of users who do not use Latin italics. As a result, Sandoll consolidated its view around launching a new family, 「SD Greta Sans」.
An InDesign font list image comparison. If you want richer typesetting with italics, using 「SD Greta Sans」 on the left is more suitable; if you prefer a simpler workflow without italics, using 「Sadnoll Greta Sans」 on the right will be more convenient.
Having undergone a demanding release process, the key characteristics of 「SD Greta Sans」—which carries multiple layers of meaning—can be summarized as follows.
Latin italics have been added to all weights of 「Sandoll Greta Sans」, originally released in 2020, forming a new font family with a total of 20 weights.
In consideration of diverse user environments, it supports Latin italic glyphs optimized separately for Latin and Hangul.
Taking into account users who rarely use Latin italics, it was released as a new font family, clearly distinguished from 「Sandoll Greta Sans」.
「SD Greta Sans」 does not stop here. Work is currently underway on variable fonts, the final piece in expanding usability. We are preparing diligently to present it in an even newer form in the not-too-distant future. Once the variable version is complete, it is expected to enable users to apply the font more satisfactorily wherever they need it.
Insight ∙ Original Font
Creating a New Precedent, 「SD Greta Sans」
Typotheque, a font foundry representing the Netherlands, offers a wide range of multilingual font families. Among them, 「Greta Sans」 is well known for supporting a variety of languages and weights. In October 2020, Typotheque collaborated with Sandoll to create the Korean font family 「Sandoll Greta Sans」 based on 「Greta Sans」.
Since its release, 「Sandoll Greta Sans」 has demonstrated wide-ranging use—from ‘title use,’ where it is prominently applied to book covers and posters, to ‘body text use,’ where it is used on websites and in relatively long-form text. While it has already received ample appreciation, Sandoll continued to explore ways to further enhance font usability and increase user satisfaction.
Although various ideas were discussed, once feasibility was taken into account, opinions naturally converged into two directions. The first was the addition of ‘italic,’ which would allow information hierarchy to be expressed in a more structured way. The second was the development of ‘variable,’ aimed at users who want more finely adjustable weights beyond the existing ten weights.
What this article seeks to discuss in detail is the new font family 「SD Greta Sans」*, which includes italics. At a glance, it may seem like simply adding italics to the already developed 「Sandoll Greta Sans」. However, contrary to that assumption, the process of releasing 「SD Greta Sans」 was far from straightforward.
*Sandoll changed the brand naming of its fonts from ‘Sadoll’ to ‘SD’ starting in March 2023. This naming applies to fonts released after March 2023.
How to use italics in an optimized way
A key feature of 「SD Greta Sans」, released in March 2023, is the addition of Latin italics. The newly added Latin italics went through an adjustment process in which their size was increased to 125%. This was a necessary adjustment to ensure harmony with Hangul when mixing Hangul and Latin text, particularly for punctuation and symbols.
*The 「Greta Sans」 italics by Typotheque were designed by Peter Bil’ak and released in 2012.
In fact, adjusting the Latin italics was the most challenging aspect of releasing 「SD Greta Sans」. Italic is a slanted style used in Latin scripts, but it is not a style commonly used in Hangul*.
Sandoll designer Kim Seulgi’s font 「Dalseul」 is a vertical semi-cursive font based on Joseon-era letter writing. As a Hangul style comparable to Latin italics, ‘heullim’ (cursive) can be cited, but it is difficult to say that it has been fully systematized in the same way as Latin italics. Nevertheless, many font designers continue to explore diverse typological approaches for Hangul, and it is therefore thought that one day in the future, Hangul italics may be added to 「SD Greta Sans」.
If no adjustment had been necessary, it would have been possible to release the font while keeping the Latin italics created by Typotheque as they were. However, the key criterion Sandoll’s designers focused on was “how users actually use fonts in real contexts.”
While it was not possible to review every domestic publication, as many cases as possible were examined. In summary, recent trends show that Latin italics are more often used together with Latin text, or on their own, rather than alongside Hangul.
Accordingly, the italics in 「SD Greta Sans」 were set to be optimized for standalone Latin use. Certain punctuation and symbols adjusted for harmonious use with Hangul are provided as additional glyphs. In InDesign, when the language setting is applied as ‘Korean,’ the adjusted italics are automatically activated, allowing for more convenient use.
From top to bottom, this is a typesetting example showing: Hangul with punctuation, Latin with punctuation, punctuation used when Latin italics are set to the ‘Korean’ language option, and the default punctuation for Latin italics. Depending on the user’s intent, punctuation adjusted to the size and position of Hangul can be used to achieve better harmony with Hangul, while the default punctuation can be used for more English-optimized typesetting when using Latin italics alone. In programs other than InDesign, this does not switch automatically based on language settings and is instead provided as alternate glyphs.
A New Font Family, 「SD Greta Sans」
At the same time, it was necessary to consider how the font should be released. A decision had to be made on whether to add Latin italics to 「Sandoll Greta Sans」, released in 2020, or to launch it as a new font family under the name 「SD Greta Sans」. If usage expansion alone were the priority, adding italics to the existing font would have been the logical choice.
However, including Latin italics would increase the number of weights from 10 to 20, creating an excessive level of complexity that could not be overlooked. From the perspective of enhancing font usability, it was also important to respect the usability of users who do not use Latin italics. As a result, Sandoll consolidated its view around launching a new family, 「SD Greta Sans」.
An InDesign font list image comparison. If you want richer typesetting with italics, using 「SD Greta Sans」 on the left is more suitable; if you prefer a simpler workflow without italics, using 「Sadnoll Greta Sans」 on the right will be more convenient.
Having undergone a demanding release process, the key characteristics of 「SD Greta Sans」—which carries multiple layers of meaning—can be summarized as follows.
Latin italics have been added to all weights of 「Sandoll Greta Sans」, originally released in 2020, forming a new font family with a total of 20 weights.
In consideration of diverse user environments, it supports Latin italic glyphs optimized separately for Latin and Hangul.
Taking into account users who rarely use Latin italics, it was released as a new font family, clearly distinguished from 「Sandoll Greta Sans」.
「SD Greta Sans」 does not stop here. Work is currently underway on variable fonts, the final piece in expanding usability. We are preparing diligently to present it in an even newer form in the not-too-distant future. Once the variable version is complete, it is expected to enable users to apply the font more satisfactorily wherever they need it.