Andrade is a new typeface designed by Dino dos Santos in 2005.

This typeface was inspired in the typographic work of Manoel de Andrade de Figueiredo (b.1670-d.1735), Nova Escola para Aprender a Ler, Escrever e Contar, printed in 1722 at Offcina de Bernardo da Costa de Carvalho.

This is one of the most important books, and almost forgotten, about Portuguese calligraphy and typography, and the work of Andrade de Figueiredo is among the most amazing examples of type design of the Eighteenth Century. His work inspired Ventura da Silva, a Portuguese typographer, who in 1803 published a book named Regras Methodicas, where he redesigns some of Figueiredo’s type specimens.

But Ventura’s purpose was to create a more elegant and readable typeface than Didot and Bodoni. This kind of typeface used to be called leitura and is a transition between the baroque and modern typography.

Andrade is a brilliant text typeface and is available in Regular, Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, Ligatures, Ligatures Italic, Swashes and Ornaments. Andrade is my tribute to Portuguese typography and to the work of Manoel de Andrade de Figueiredo in particular.