Sets Grotesk
Illustrations – Pablo Luebert
Sets Grotesk L
Sets Grotesk M
Sets Grotesk S
Sets Grotesk XS
A Grotesk of two minds; a utilitarian heart with a quirky beat. Function, with a twist
When Sahar and I decided to start this foundry of ours, we had a long conversation about what fonts we would launch with. We each had a million different ideas we wanted to explore, and were having a difficult time deciding where to start. So, I asked her to give me a brief, just to tame the multitude of possibilities. I waited for her to ask for a comic book font with a crazy display feature. She said: ‘A not too quirky Grotesk’.
._. Tamed indeed.
So that is how Sets Grotesk started. A garden variety sans that was trying very hard to be cool. And then, I decided that with every brief there is room for interpretation (and interpolation?) and joy. A robot doing jazz hands. So I decided to add more quirk. And polish. And… optical sizes. But not just any optical size; this isn’t your taller x‑height and lower contrast for text sort. In Sets Grotesk, the larger the intended use, the taller the x‑height, the shorter the ascenders and descenders, the larger the dots, and the wider the characters get. This is completely inspired by the 60s and 70s fonts, like every graphic designer’s beloved Futura Maxi. The optical sizes also provide a window into the history of 20th century Grotesks, exploring different eras, but not in order—so if you have a look at the S size, you might find something familiar there ;) ;)
With this optical size exploration, I also decided to introduce differing‑direction on cuts in the diacritics and some punctuation, and then one thing led to another and I decided to do away with the tails on the a, g, l, and y in the Large size, so you can achieve that compact look we all love. You might be thinking: ‘No José, I don’t like it at all’. I hear you. You can still bring the tails back into your design at any size; all the alternates are available through stylistic sets for you to use as you see fit.
—J.
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Character Grid
Language Support
This family supports
377
languages.
aae Arbëreshë Albanian aa Afar abe Western Abnaki abn Abua abr Abron ace Achinese ach Acholi acu Achuar-Shiwiar acz Acheron ada Adangme aer Eastern Arrernte af Afrikaans agr Aguaruna aht Ahtna ale Aleut aln Gheg Albanian alq Alonquin sq Tosk Albanian amc Amahuaca ame Yanesha' ami Amis amr Amarakaeri anc Angas anw Anaang aoz Uab Meto an Aragonese arl Arabela arn Mapudungun aud Anuta ayc Southern Aymara ay Central Aymara azb South Azerbaijani az North Azerbaijani azo Awing bm Bambara ban Balinese bba Baatonum bbc Batak Toba bci Baoulé beh Biali bem Bemba (Zambia) bez Bena (Tanzania) bfa Bari bik Bikol bin Bini bi Bislama bjn Banjar bjt Balante-Ganja bmq Bomu boa Bora bs Bosnian boz Tiéyaxo Bozo bqc Boko (Benin) br Breton bsc Bassari bss Akoose btd Batak Dairi btm Batak Mandailing bts Batak Simalungun btx Batak Karo buc Bushi bug Buginese bwq Southern Bobo Madaré bze Jenaama Bozo cab Garifuna cak Kaqchikel ca Catalan cbi Chachi cbk Chavacano cbr Cashibo-Cacataibo cbs Cashinahua cbt Chayahuita cbu Candoshi-Shapra ceb Cebuano cs Czech cgg Chiga ch Chamorro chj Ojitlán Chinantec chk Chuukese cim Cimbrian cjk Chokwe ckb Central Kurdish cko Anufo cme Cerma cni Asháninka sr-ME Montenegrin con Cofán kw Cornish co Corsican cot Caquinte cou Wamey cpu Pichis Ashéninka crh Crimean Tatar crs Seselwa Creole French csa Chiltepec Chinantec csb Kashubian ctd Tedim Chin cy Welsh da Danish de German dga Southern Dagaare dgl Andaandi, Dongolawi dhv Dehu zza Dimli dje Zarma dsb Lower Sorbian dua Duala dya Dyan dyo Jola-Fonyi dyu Dyula efi Efik et Standard Estonian man Eastern Maninkakan en English eu Basque fo Faroese ak Fanti ffm Maasina Fulfulde fia Nobiin fj Fijian fil Filipino fi Finnish fkv Kven Finnish fr French fy Western Frisian fub Adamawa Fulfulde ff Pulaar fue Borgu Fulfulde fuh Western Niger Fulfulde fui Bagirmi Fulfulde fuq Central-Eastern Niger Fulfulde fur Friulian fuv Nigerian Fulfulde gaa Ga gag Gagauz gah Alekano gax Borana-Arsi-Guji Oromo om West Central Oromo gcf Guadeloupean Creole French gil Gilbertese gjn Gonja gd Scottish Gaelic ga Irish gl Galician gv Manx gni Gooniyandi gsw Swiss German guc Wayuu gn Paraguayan Guaraní gux Gourmanchéma guz Gusii haa Hän hae Eastern Oromo ht Haitian ha Hausa haw Hawaiian hmn Northern Qiandong Miao hil Hiligaynon hms Southern Qiandong Miao hni Hani hns Caribbean Hindustani hop Hopi hr Croatian hsb Upper Sorbian hu Hungarian hus Huastec huu Murui Huitoto ibb Ibibio ig Igbo idu Idoma ilo Iloko id Indonesian is Icelandic it Italian jam Jamaican Creole English jv Javanese jiv Shuar ja Japanese kl Kalaallisut kam Kamba (Kenya) kde Makonde kea Kabuverdianu kek Kekchí kgp Kaingang kha Khasi ki Kikuyu rw Kinyarwanda kiu Kirmanjki kkj Kako kln Kalenjin kmb Kimbundu ku Northern Kurdish knf Mankanya kg Kongo koo Konzo kqn Kaonde kqs Northern Kissi kri Krio krl Karelian ksf Bafia ksh Kölsch ktu Kituba (DRC) kwi Awa-Cuaiquer lad Ladino lia West-Central Limba ln Lingala lt Lithuanian lld Ladin lmo Lombard lot Otuho loz Lozi ltg Latgalian lb Luxembourgish lua Luba-Lulua lg Ganda luo Luo (Kenya and Tanzania) lv Standard Latvian mh Marshallese mam Mam mcd Sharanahua mcf Matsés men Mende (Sierra Leone) mer Meru mfe Mauritian Creole mfv Mandjak mic Mi'kmaq min Minangkabau miq Mískito mg Malagasy mt Maltese man Mandinka moh Mohawk mqm South Marquesan mi Maori mrq North Marquesan mus Creek mwf Murrinh-Patha mwl Mirandese mwp Kala Lagaw Ya mxv Metlatónoc Mixtec myk Mamara Senoufo mzi Ixcatlán Mazatec nag Naga Pidgin nap Neapolitan nba Nyemba nr South Ndebele nd North Ndebele ng Ndonga nds Low German nhn Central Nahuatl niu Niuean nl Dutch no Norwegian not Nomatsiguenga nso Pedi ny Nyanja nym Nyamwezi nyn Nyankole nzi Nzima oc Occitan orc Orma orh Oroqen pam Pampanga pap Papiamento pau Palauan pbb Páez pcd Picard pis Pijin piu Pintupi-Luritja pms Piemontese pl Polish pon Pohnpeian pt Portuguese pot Potawatomi pov Upper Guinea Crioulo ppl Pipil prq Ashéninka Perené quc K'iche' qu Quechua rar Cook Islands Māori rmn Balkan Romani rom Vlax Romani rm Romansh ro Romanian roo Rotokas rn Rundi ruo Istro Romanian rup Macedo-Romanian sg Sango sav Saafi-Saafi sbp Sangu (Tanzania) scn Sicilian sco Scots seh Sena sei Seri ses Koyraboro Senni Songhai shk Shilluk shp Shipibo-Conibo shz Syenara Senoufo sje Pite Sami sju Ume Sami sjw Shawnee sk Slovak sl Slovenian sma Southern Sami se Northern Sami smj Lule Sami smn Inari Sami sm Samoan sn Shona snf Noon snk Soninke so Somali st Southern Sotho es Spanish sc Sardinian srm Saramaccan srn Sranan Tongo su Sundanese sus Susu swb Maore Comorian sv Swedish sw Swahili szl Silesian ty Tahitian tay Atayal tdt Tetun Dili tem Timne tet Tetum fil Tagalog tkl Tokelau tkr Tsakhur tly Talysh tnr Ménik tob Toba toi Tonga (Zambia) to Tonga (Tonga Islands) top Papantla Totonac tpi Tok Pisin tsz Purepecha ttt Muslim Tat tk Turkmen tum Tumbuka tr Turkish tvl Tuvalu ak Twi tzh Tzeltal tzo Tzotzil ulk Meriam Mir umb Umbundu del Munsee uz Northern Uzbek vec Venetian vep Veps vro Võro wae Walser war Waray (Philippines) wbp Warlpiri wa Walloon wls Wallisian wmw Mwani wo Wolof wrh Wiradjuri wss Wasa xh Xhosa xnz Kenzi, Mattokki xog Soga yad Yagua yao Yao yo Yoruba yua Yucateco zdj Ngazidja Comorian zlm Malaysian zro Záparo ms Standard Malay zu Zulu zun Zuni