GT Canon
Family overview
- Condensed
- S Light Italic
- M Light Italic
- L Light Italic
- S Regular Italic
- M Regular Italic
- L Regular Italic
- S Medium Italic
- M Medium Italic
- L Medium Italic
- S Semibold Italic
- M Semibold Italic
- L Semibold Italic
- S Bold Italic
- M Bold Italic
- L Bold Italic
- S Heavy Italic
- M Heavy Italic
- L Heavy Italic
- S Black Italic
- M Black Italic
- L Black Italic
- Narrow
- S Light Italic
- M Light Italic
- L Light Italic
- S Regular Italic
- M Regular Italic
- L Regular Italic
- S Medium Italic
- M Medium Italic
- L Medium Italic
- S Semibold Italic
- M Semibold Italic
- L Semibold Italic
- S Bold Italic
- M Bold Italic
- L Bold Italic
- S Heavy Italic
- M Heavy Italic
- L Heavy Italic
- S Black Italic
- M Black Italic
- L Black Italic
- Standard
- S Light Italic
- M Light Italic
- L Light Italic
- S Regular Italic
- M Regular Italic
- L Regular Italic
- S Medium Italic
- M Medium Italic
- L Medium Italic
- S Semibold Italic
- M Semibold Italic
- L Semibold Italic
- S Bold Italic
- M Bold Italic
- L Bold Italic
- S Heavy Italic
- M Heavy Italic
- L Heavy Italic
- S Black Italic
- M Black Italic
- L Black Italic
- Extended
- S Light Italic
- M Light Italic
- L Light Italic
- S Regular Italic
- M Regular Italic
- L Regular Italic
- S Medium Italic
- M Medium Italic
- L Medium Italic
- S Semibold Italic
- M Semibold Italic
- L Semibold Italic
- S Bold Italic
- M Bold Italic
- L Bold Italic
- S Heavy Italic
- M Heavy Italic
- L Heavy Italic
- S Black Italic
- M Black Italic
- L Black Italic
- Expanded
- Mono
- Light Italic
- Regular Italic
- Medium Italic
- Semibold Italic
- Bold Italic
- Heavy Italic
- Black Italic
Subfamilies
- Standard S LightA face embodies character: the severity of a brutalist façade, the lightness of thin display cut, the friendliness of rounded terminals. The face is also about recognition: we know a style by its face, we choose an object because of the impression it projects.
- Standard M LightThis circumstance informs all aspects of the typeface design, from the architecture of the letters and the design of individual forms and components, to optical corrections (overshoot). Gravity manifests in stroke and proportion. The thickening of verticals, the grounding of serifs, the way curves rest against the baseline—all contribute to how a letter *sits *or stands..
- Standard L LightDorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer’s wife. Their house was small, for the lumber to build it had to be carried by wagon many miles.
- Standard S Light ItalicA typeface, an interface, the face of a building—all these indicate how we can make things present: face is a principle, the visible form through which some becomes a thing. The face is the plane that mediates between structure and encounter.
- Standard M Light ItalicAlthough we could describe text, in contrast to images, as a medium of lines (and here the line becomes a demarcation line on all significative levels), it is images—or more precisely, the pictorial nature of the visual—that, alongside the virtual, mathematical construct, allows for manifestation of lines in the first place.
- Standard L Light ItalicBring into view, make present, display. A display is not just what is shown but the act of showing itself. To make something appear as something. Since we not only see what is visible but the amorphous, fractioned mass of the invisible, that underlies it, overshadows it, precedes it and lingers on.
- Standard S RegularIn the war of Troy, the Greeks having sacked some of the neighbouring towns, and taken from thence two beautiful captives, Chryseïs and Briseïs, allotted the first to Agamemnon, and the last to Achilles.
- Standard M RegularAnatomy is the gesture of dividing the visible to seek what cannot be seen. Anatomy is the scientific study of the structure of living organisms.
- Standard L RegularTo justify is to align. Be it aligning things or arguments, be it the alignment of an action and its actor with their surroundings and the forces that shape them. Who justifies, aims to shift the object of his or her justification, either in relation to its circumstances or to the object itself.
- Standard S Regular ItalicAnd it is only the sequence of several nodes that determines the appearance. But especially in the visual realm, they lead a dubious existence. On the one hand, they are image-forming in vector image production, making it possible to create contours and surfaces in the first place; on the other hand, they ultimately recede behind the given image.
- Standard M Regular ItalicThe reason, therefore, that some intuitive minds are not mathematical is that they cannot at all turn their attention to the principles of mathematics. But the reason that mathematicians are not intuitive is that they do not see what is before them, and that, accustomed to the exact and plain principles of mathematics, and not reasoning till they have well inspected and arranged their principles, they are lost in matters of intuition where the principles do not allow of such arrangement.
- Standard L Regular ItalicLayouts can be balanced or not, regardless of whether they are symmetrical or asymmetrical. A sculpture can teeter and still rest. Our task is not to enforce equilibrium, but to find the point where the space begins to breathe.
- Standard S MediumOne of the most important factors in keeping the feet on sucklings, weanlings and yearlings in proper condition as is specified in this article is to see that you are keeping the leg in the middle of the foot, otherwise many a good horse suffers, as the concussion and strain is not equally distributed on both sides of the foot when in action.
- Standard M MediumTension as a whole does not arise from the unrestrained or untamed wildness of individual elements. On the contrary, it is the right balance of unity and discipline on the one hand, and deviation on the other. In political and social contexts, the dissolution of tension is a noble and worthy pursuit. In design, it all too often leads to illegibility. This applies in both directions. After all, what is attraction, what is eroticism? The casual display of the fully revealed whole, or the play of gradually unveiling its parts? No tension, no relation.
- Standard L MediumBalance is the tension needed to neither explode or implode. What arises when intention meets the accidental and neither is abolished. In bodies, in breaths, in the temporality and modalities of being, balance appears as that which is always about to shift.
- Standard S Medium ItalicHe looked out the window at the Hudson River, ruddied in the flame of the dying sun, and wondered moodily whether these last experiments would finally bring him the fame and success he was after, or if they were merely some more false alarms.
- Standard M Medium ItalicBoth arise in a mutual interplay. Although drawing has never been just a medium of representation, but always also one of operation, one that forces the model into a certain order (line, proportion, grid, materiality), the introduction of nodes has given this reciprocal relationship a significant influence on authorship, insofar as it shifts slightly ‘in favour’ of the model: digital drawing can no longer not be a model, and from now on, the designer can no longer purely be a drawer but is always also a model-builder. Nodes allow form to be computed.
- Standard L Medium ItalicIn recent years, few terms in design have enjoyed such a meteoric rise as the two letters U and X. User experience quickly became the measure of all things. At first glance, there seems to be little wrong with that. Anyone who strives to offer users the best possible experience does not have to be a showman or a charlatan who turns even the simplest interaction into an experience.
- Standard S SemiboldConsidering that the little party had been seated round the tea-table for less than twenty minutes, the animation observable on their faces, and the amount of sound they were producing collectively, were very creditable to the hostess.
- Standard M SemiboldThe reason, therefore, that some intuitive minds are not mathematical is that they cannot at all turn their attention to the principles of mathematics. But the reason that mathematicians are not intuitive is that they do not see what is before them, and that, accustomed to the exact and plain principles of mathematics, and not reasoning till they have well inspected and arranged their principles, they are lost in matters of intuition where the principles do not allow of such arrangement.
- Standard L SemiboldCutting into stone, writing swiftly by hand, pushing nodes on a graphical user interface: Motion is one of the driving forces in typography and a guiding principle between handwriting and type design.
- Standard S Semibold ItalicWhen quoting, words do not necessarily have to change, and yet most things do alter. Typeface, layout, screen, print technology, paper, context, means of distribution. Quoting always raises the question of origin and our relationship to it. What is it that we change when we quote?
- Standard M Semibold ItalicBut I can inform myself. I can learn about the environment and people I create for. Their past and present. Their needs and desires. We are not what we design and it would be foolish to believe that we know our so called target group as well as we know our flatmates.
- Standard L Semibold ItalicOn a page, balance occurs across the line: x-height against ascender height, text weight against leading, headline mass against white space. In multi-weight families, balance becomes structural.
- Standard S BoldBring into view, make present, display. A display is not just what is shown but the act of showing itself. To make something appear as something. Since we not only see what is visible but the amorphous, fractioned mass of the invisible, that underlies it, overshadows it, precedes it and lingers on.
- Standard M BoldCutting into stone, writing swiftly by hand, pushing nodes on a graphical user interface: Motion is one of the driving forces in typography and a guiding principle between handwriting and type design.
- Standard L BoldAn instance is a moment made material. It is the singular occurrence of a state that could have been otherwise. By virtue of this contingency, an instance is in turn also moment-creating: an instance is not only the capturing of time (including processes and patterns) or space (including organisational and hierarchical positions), but also their trigger.
- Standard S Bold ItalicIt does not matter what note you play. What only matters is which note follows, a legendary trumpet player once said (in a pretty different way, but that is how I remember the quote).
- Standard M Bold ItalicAlthough we could describe text, in contrast to images, as a medium of lines (and here the line becomes a demarcation line on all significative levels), it is images—or more precisely, the pictorial nature of the visual—that, alongside the virtual, mathematical construct, allows for manifestation of lines in the first place.
- Standard L Bold ItalicThe reason, therefore, that some intuitive minds are not mathematical is that they cannot at all turn their attention to the principles of mathematics. But the reason that mathematicians are not intuitive is that they do not see what is before them, and that, accustomed to the exact and plain principles of mathematics, and not reasoning till they have well inspected and arranged their principles, they are lost in matters of intuition where the principles do not allow of such arrangement.
- Standard S HeavyMoving a vector between applications can result in measurable shifts caused by floating-point limitations and incompatible Bézier implementations. In typography, the discrepancy is heightened: glyph outlines include instructions (hinting) that govern their behaviour at specific sizes, which are lost when text is converted to outlines. Thus, even in fields predicated on precision, scale introduces qualitative change not as an exception but as a structural condition.
- Standard M HeavyOne of the great challenges in typography awaits both the typesetter and the type designer in the same place, and it concerns writers no less. It is not only the not-so-well-tempered poster that requires the right use of tension. It is especially the longer texts whose harmony and carrying power can be sustained only by maintaining tension.
- Standard L HeavyAs in thought: a phrase balanced on its referent, meaning slipping just out of reach, suspended between the known and the not-yet. Balance is the architecture of instability—made durable through time. Balance is not a matter of equality but of energy.
- Standard S Heavy ItalicScaling therefore entails rounding operations and antialiasing strategies that alter the appearance of shapes, particularly at small sizes where a single pixel represents a significant portion of form. Software environments introduce further divergence, using distinct coordinate systems, unit definitions, and conversion routines.
- Standard M Heavy ItalicQuoting is a genuinely creative practice. Something has always been there before. We create in its stead and carry it forward. On quiet soles we walk, torchbearers with the blowpipe tucked behind the ear, moving through the forest in search of our prey.
- Standard L Heavy ItalicTension as a whole does not arise from the unrestrained or untamed wildness of individual elements. On the contrary, it is the right balance of unity and discipline on the one hand, and deviation on the other. In political and social contexts, the dissolution of tension is a noble and worthy pursuit. In design, it all too often leads to illegibility. This applies in both directions. After all, what is attraction, what is eroticism? The casual display of the fully revealed whole, or the play of gradually unveiling its parts? No tension, no relation.
- Standard S BlackA face is presence. It looks back, even when it does not see. The face is exposure, vulnerability, recognition: it is how we appear to others, how we are held in relation. It is therefore always recognition and exemplification. Individual and collective.
- Standard M BlackOne of the great challenges in typography awaits both the typesetter and the type designer in the same place, and it concerns writers no less. It is not only the not-so-well-tempered poster that requires the right use of tension. It is especially the longer texts whose harmony and carrying power can be sustained only by maintaining tension.
- Standard L BlackConsidering that the little party had been seated round the tea-table for less than twenty minutes, the animation observable on their faces, and the amount of sound they were producing collectively, were very creditable to the hostess.
- Standard S Black ItalicContrast is difference made visible, the consequence and prerequisite of an appearance. Without contrast, there is no difference. Everything is not just monotonous, it simply is not. It is one and therefore isn’t. Contrast is the distance and proximity of the in-between. What is, is through difference.
- Standard M Black ItalicAlthough we could describe text, in contrast to images, as a medium of lines (and here the line becomes a demarcation line on all significative levels), it is images—or more precisely, the pictorial nature of the visual—that, alongside the virtual, mathematical construct, allows for manifestation of lines in the first place.
- Standard L Black ItalicOne of the great challenges in typography awaits both the typesetter and the type designer in the same place, and it concerns writers no less. It is not only the not-so-well-tempered poster that requires the right use of tension. It is especially the longer texts whose harmony and carrying power can be sustained only by maintaining tension.
- Settings
Typeface information
GT Canon’s design is pragmatic but not static: movement and liveliness are embedded in the letterforms. It is our answer to what our digital times require of a serif today. It’s what a contemporary serif should be in both form and function. Like its sans serif sibling, GT Standard, it aims for modern functionality rather than stylistic reinvention.
Typeface features
OpenType features enable smart typography. You can use these features in most Desktop applications, on the web, and in your mobile apps. Each typeface contains different features. Below are the most important features included in GT Canon’s fonts:
- TNUM
- Tabular figures
0123456789
- ONUM
- Oldstyle figures
0123456789
- SMCP
- Small Caps
Anatomy
Typeface Minisite


- Visit the GT Canon minisite to discover more about the typeface family’s history and design concept.

