Gerard Unger’s new typeface Alverata is a twenty-first-century type-face inspired by the shapes of romanesque capitals in inscriptions of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, without being a close imitation of them. It is additionally based on the early twentieth-century model, but tweaked so as to prevent blandness and monotony. Alverata performs beautifully in both screen and on paper, delivering excellent legibility. Its letters are open and friendly in small sizes and lively and attractive in large sizes. They are robust, and show refinement in their detail. It is an extensive type family, with versions for both formal and informal applications.

Alverata consists of three different fonts: Alverata, Alverata Informal and Alverata Irregular, that variate in form and width, but maintain the same spirit. The ‘irregular’ version is particularly inspired by the Insular letterforms, the uncials, and their constantly changing positioning. Alverata PanEuropean includes Greek and Cyrillic relatives. The typeface strikes a balance among Europe’s diversity of languages, combining contemporary typographical practices with features of medieval letterforms, from the time when Europe came into being. Visually, some written languages, such as Czech and Maltese, differ quite strongly from languages like English and German, notably because of their many accented characters. While other typefaces will show this difference, Alverata removes it. As a result, Alverata enables harmonious convergence of languages.