Gens De Baton is based on a charming lower case alphabet that appeared in the Almanach des Enfants pour 1886 (Paris 1886) under the heading “Amusing Grammar Lessons.” Gens De Baton means simply “Stick People.” The unknown designer turned the bare letter forms into drawings of people for the enjoyment of the children for whom the almanac was intended. The letter forms themselves were based on the French Romain du Roi (King’s Roman), except for the ‘g’ and the ‘j’ -- which were based on Baskerville. The letters ‘w’ and ‘y’ were not included, as they are seldom seen in French. We have left the letters somewhat rough, as they appeared in the Almanach des Enfants , resisting the temptation to clean up all the lines and render them with digital perfection.

We have used our HiH Firmin Didot to supply an upper case and auxiliary characters, as Didot was originally a modified version of Romain du Roi. It is interesting to observe the contrast between the polished look of the Didot upper case and the rough, hand-drawn look of the lower case.

Purchasers of this font have our permission to use it for the amusement of adults as well as children. We recommend setting Gens De Baton at 24 points or larger.