With Apax, François Rappo explores the visual grammar of constructivism through his modernist lens. Owing to a rigorous and systematic design, Apax reveals a strong constructivist identity. Its geometric architecture develops radical shapes through many distinctive letters.
This uncompromising approach is combined with the tradition of modern grotesque design, which is based on functionalism. Therefore, Apax is drawn with the unique optical balance that characterizes François Rappo’s typefaces and presents a remarkable fluidity and a definite competence in a wide range of typesetting tasks and contexts, from body texts to visual identities. Each style proposes alternate glyphs for the letters “a,” “s,” and “S,” allowing flexibility in the ethos of its visual expression—a unique and distinctive feature.
Apax 12 styles
Case Sensitive Forms


This function formats the text in uppercase and adjusts spacing between all capital letters. It also applies the ‘Case Sensitive Forms’ feature which replaces certain characters with alternates that are better suited for all capital text, especially related to punctuation.
@|¦()[]{}¿¡‹›«»-–—·
@|¦()[]{}¿¡‹›«»-–—·
Contextual Alternates

This feature adapts the position of a glyph after its surrounding context. For instance, a dash placed between two uppercase letters or numbers will be replaced by an uppercase version of the dash, slightly higher. This feature is usually active by default in Adobe applications.
Tabular Lining Figures

Based on the proportions of the capitals, lining figures have an invariable height. With the combination of the tabular spacing format, the width of each numeral is uniformized. This feature is useful when numerals need to all lined up. It facilitates the reading of numbers set within columns or tables. As some applications don’t have access to this feature, proportional figures are set as the default choice.
Proportional Oldstyle Figures

Based on the design of the lowercase, oldstyle figures have varying ascenders and descenders. Like most of the letters, each number has an appropriate width based on its shape. The combination of oldstyle figures with proportional setting generate numerals perfectly adapted for text.
Tabular Oldstyle Figures

Based on the design of the lowercase, oldstyle figures have varying ascenders and descenders. With the combination of the tabular spacing format, the width of each numeral is uniformized. This feature is useful when numerals need to all lined up. It facilitates the reading of numbers set within columns or tables.
Fractions

With this feature, any numbers separated by a slash will automatically turn into a fraction. To fit in fraction configuration, numerals have been designed smaller and their weights have been adjusted to suit the typeface.
3/4 3/8 5/8 7/8
3/4 3/8 5/8 7/8
Ordinals

This feature replaces any letter following a numeral with its matching superior letters. French language uses the ordinal indicators such as ‘er’ for 1er premier, while Spanish, Portuguese and Italian require the feminine and masculine ordinals ‘a,’ ‘o’ for 1º, 1ª. Ordinals are designed to match the weight of the typeface.
Slashed Zero

Originally created to avoid the confusion between the ‘0’ and the ‘O’, this feature substitutes all zeros in a selected text by a slashed form of the zero.
Numerators

This feature substitutes glyphs with their matching smaller alternates. The numerators are the same glyphs that are used to create fractions, their vertical position remains within the capital letters height. These glyphs are reduced in size and designed slightly heavier to keep them consistent with the rest of the font.
Habcdefghijklmn
Hopqrstuvwxyz()[].,
Habcdefghijklmn
Hopqrstuvwxyz()[].,
Denominators

This feature substitutes glyphs with their matching smaller alternates and low position glyphs. The denominators are the same glyphs that are used to create fractions, their vertical position remains within the base line. These glyphs are reduced in size and designed slightly heavier to keep them consistent with the rest of the font.
Habcdefghijklmn
Hopqrstuvwxyz()[].,
Habcdefghijklmn
Hopqrstuvwxyz()[].,
Superscript/Superiors

This feature substitutes glyphs with their matching smaller alternates which are set slightly above the height of the capital letters. These glyphs are reduced in size and designed slightly heavier to keep them consistent with the rest of the font.
Habcdefghijklmn
Hopqrstuvwxyz()[].,
Habcdefghijklmn
Hopqrstuvwxyz()[].,
Subscript/Inferiors

This feature substitutes glyphs with their matching smaller alternates which are set slightly below the baseline. These glyphs are reduced in size and designed slightly heavier to keep them consistent with the rest of the font.
Habcdefghijklmno
Hpqrstuvwxyz()[].,
Habcdefghijklmno
Hpqrstuvwxyz()[].,
Standard Ligatures

Standard ligatures replaces a sequence of characters with a single ligature glyph, they are designed to improve kerning and readability of certain letter pairs.
Discretionary Ligatures

This feature activates discretionary ligatures which are specific to the typeface. It applies all other designed ligatures that are not classified as standard ligatures.
Stylistic Set 1

This feature replaces glyph(s) with stylistic alternate(s).
SŚŠŞŜȘ sśšşŝș
aáăâäàāąåǻã
SŚŠŞŜȘ sśšşŝș
aáăâäàāąåǻã
Stylistic Set 2

This feature replaces glyph(s) with stylistic alternate(s).
aáăâäàāąåǻã
aáăâäàāąåǻã
Stylistic Set 3

This feature replaces glyph(s) with stylistic alternate(s).
SŚŠŞŜȘsśšşŝș
SŚŠŞŜȘsśšşŝș
Lowercase math symbols

This feature activates alternate lowercase positioning of mathematical symbols.
up+down
+±×÷−=≈≠¬∞
up+down
+±×÷−=≈≠¬∞
Multiply sign

This feature substitutes the letter “x” into the multiplication sign.