Masterfully making the quantum leap from metal to digital, Metodo brings distinctly early twentieth century curves to a contemporary typeface. Designed by Davide Tomatis, the typeface appears as a substantive evolution from the lineage of typefaces that draw inspiration from a German type design that traveled and evolved through numerous European foundries under different names. Metodo captures the distinct physicality of early modernist typography with a refined drawing.
The original typeface was most likely developed by Wagner & Schmidt and released under the name Neue Moderne Grotesk. It was also listed in the catalogues of some of Europe’s most famous foundries at time under various names including: Aurora in Weber’s catalogues, Accidenz Grotesk in Haas’s catalogues, and Cairoli in Nebiolo’s catalogues, just to name a few of its pseudonyms. Soon ubiquitous, albeit remaining somewhat obscure, the typeface was notably used by Jan Tschichold, for the first edition of the Die Neue Typographie, which was published in 1928.
Davide Tomatis first started working with this typeface while completing his master’s of type design at École cantonale d’art de Lausanne in 2019. Upon graduating, Tomatis continued to meticulously investigate the specific feeling evoked by the original metal typeface through its particular curves and tensions (especially present in its rounded shapes). By preserving the typeface’s overall texture rather than faithfully reproducing its minute details, Tomatis gave Metodo a sophisticated design with a timeless character.
More about the collection >Metodo 10 styles
Metodo Mono 6 styles
Case Sensitive Forms
All Caps [cpsp]
Case Sensitive Forms [case]
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.
«Optimo»
@|¦()[]{}¿¡‹›«»-–—·
«OPTIMO»
@|¦()[]{}¿¡‹›«»-–—·
Contextual Alternates
Contextual Alternates [calt]
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.
Alternate r
Stylistics Set [ss01]
This feature replaces glyph(s) with stylistic alternate(s).
retail
ŕŗř
retail
ŕŗř
Alternate R
Stylistics Set [ss02]
This feature replaces glyph(s) with stylistic alternate(s).
Retail
ŔŖŘ
Retail
ŔŖŘ
Tabular Lining Figures
Tabular Lining Figures [tnum–lnum]
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.
0123456789
0123456789
Proportional Oldstyle Figures
Proportional Oldstyle Figures [pnum–onum]
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
Tabular Oldstyle Figures [tnum–onum]
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
Fractions [frac]
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
Ordinals [ordn]
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
Slashed Zero [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.
Slashed Zero Oldstyle
Slashed Zero [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.
Proportional Oldstyle Figures [onum]
Tabular figures are all of equal width. They are only needed when the figures must all line up from one line to the next, as in a table. Proportional figures have varying widths, just like most letters; each number has a width appropriate to its design. Lining figures are all the same height, usually similar to that of capital letters. They are needed for use with all-capital settings.
Circled Figures
Stylistic Set 14 [ss14]
This feature replaces glyph(s) with stylistic alternate(s).
0123456789
0123456789
Black Circled Figures
Stylistic Set 15 [ss15]
This feature replaces glyph(s) with stylistic alternate(s).
0123456789
0123456789
Numerators
Numerators [numr]
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
Denominators [dnom]
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
Superscript / Superiors [sups]
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
Subscript / Inferiors [subs]
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 [liga]
Standard ligatures replaces a sequence of characters with a single ligature glyph, they are designed to improve kerning and readability of certain letter pairs.
Lowercase math symbols
Stylistic Set 6 [ss06]
This feature activates alternate lowercase positioning of mathematical symbols.
up+down
+±×÷−=≈≠¬∞
up+down
+±×÷−=≈≠¬∞
Multiply sign
Stylistic Set 20 [ss20]
This feature substitutes the letter “x” into the multiplication sign.