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 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 LightWith this comes an epistemic shift: Drawing and model are interrelated, like hands touching each other. Each hand both touches and is touched, with their roles constantly shifting. And so drawing is not merely a representation of the model, and the model is not merely the origin of the drawing.
- Standard L LightOn the other hand, tools and designs are tailored to the user to such an extent that they do not even need to be used, as every possible action is anticipated, thus becoming literally useless, and the user, around whom everything revolved, has been relieved of their usage. Free, weight-, timeless and a fence observer. Rather than being oppressed by tradition and forced to master the tool as it has been forged over hundreds of years of craft.
- Standard S Light ItalicWandering does not leave any traces as long as it keeps up with the wandering of time. Edges mark the threshold of meaning, the moment when sense meets its outside of the inside of the outside of the sentence. And therefore all is exterior.
- Standard M Light 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 L Light ItalicNo matter if we geometrise gravity or not, it begins with attraction, not with weight. The body is never free from the fall. We are always in relation to a center we cannot see.
- Standard S RegularCutting 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 M RegularTo lose face or to save face reveals the fragile, performative nature of this appearance. Therefore, naming a typeface is akin to attributing a paradoxical presence to letters, giving them an identity that is both personal and collective.
- Standard L RegularTools supporting interaction design. At the same time, we can observe a trend towards reduced interaction surfaces. Users increasingly ask than navigate. Which increasingly reduces the area of contact.
- Standard S Regular 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 M Regular ItalicDisplay denotes a style made for large sizes: headlines, titles, posters. Display styles often stress features: thinner hairlines, sharper serifs, higher contrast, narrower spacing. They prioritise impact over long, continuous readability.
- Standard L Regular ItalicOnly that is limited can invite, can expand and intrude, or be intruded upon. No boundaries, nothing to transcend? At least nowhere to stay. Wandering does not leave any traces as long as it keeps up with the wandering of time.
- Standard S MediumIn 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 MediumWandering does not leave any traces as long as it keeps up with the wandering of time. Edges mark the threshold of meaning, the moment when sense meets its outside of the inside of the outside of the sentence. And therefore all is exterior.
- Standard L MediumBroadly speaking, anatomy refers to the internal architecture of organisms, i.e. how bones, muscles, vessels, nerves and organs are arranged and how they relate to each other to form a functional whole.
- Standard S Medium ItalicThere are countless forms and shades of power. We intuitively associate power with a powerful person, with someone who can impose their will on others. They make themselves the subject and degrade everyone else to their objects.
- Standard M Medium ItalicNo matter if we geometrise gravity or not, it begins with attraction, not with weight. The body is never free from the fall. We are always in relation to a center we cannot see.
- Standard L Medium ItalicConsidering 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 SemiboldQuoting is a technique of remembering. When we quote, we conjure up the past. We bring a text or an image from another time and place into a new environment. Remembering is a transformative process: what we remember is altered by adding, omitting or rewriting. The house is now red.
- Standard M SemiboldTension 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 SemiboldWhatever is scaled inevitably changes. The morphology of insects versus that of humans. The differing stability of small and large load-bearing structures in architecture. The behaviour of algorithms that perform well on small datasets yet falter when applied to billions of inputs.
- Standard S Semibold ItalicDesign is always an act of presumption. I do not design from the position that I am entitled to. I am not a chair. Horses have never painted humans on a wall. It is a common misconception that the means of design must reflect—or even find their equivalent in—the social and biographical conditions of their production.
- Standard M Semibold ItalicWith this comes an epistemic shift: Drawing and model are interrelated, like hands touching each other. Each hand both touches and is touched, with their roles constantly shifting. And so drawing is not merely a representation of the model, and the model is not merely the origin of the drawing.
- Standard L Semibold ItalicThe original or merely a template? Traces? And who is to say that our sense of things, our emotions and feelings, are nothing but an unwitting attempt to quote the stories and songs that have moved us?
- Standard S BoldMathematically this is correct; the computational model of points, curves, and transformations retains its internal precision at any size. Yet, in practice, vectors are always realised within systems that impose discrete constraints. Every display, printer, and imaging device ultimately renders to a raster.
- Standard M BoldIn 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 L BoldQuoting 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 S Bold ItalicWalter Sills labored for years as an unknown laboratory worker—but at fifty he makes his great discovery! Fame, riches are to be his fate—until interference looms up in the form of a few unreliable characters—and Nature herself!
- Standard M Bold ItalicThe way biological systems (cells, organs, ecosystems) shift their dynamics as they grow. The contrast between quantum behaviour and classical mechanics. In digital graphics, the notion of scalability is commonly treated as resolved: vector graphics are assumed to be infinitely and losslessly scalable.
- Standard L Bold 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 S HeavyDisplay denotes a style made for large sizes: headlines, titles, posters. Display styles often stress features: thinner hairlines, sharper serifs, higher contrast, narrower spacing. They prioritise impact over long, continuous readability.
- Standard M HeavyTo lose face or to save face reveals the fragile, performative nature of this appearance. Therefore, naming a typeface is akin to attributing a paradoxical presence to letters, giving them an identity that is both personal and collective.
- Standard L HeavyOnly that is limited can invite, can expand and intrude, or be intruded upon. No boundaries, nothing to transcend? At least nowhere to stay. Wandering does not leave any traces as long as it keeps up with the wandering of time.
- Standard S Heavy ItalicEdges mark the threshold of meaning, the moment when sense meets its outside of the inside of the outside of the sentence. And therefore all is exterior.
- Standard M Heavy ItalicIn the one the principles are palpable, but removed from ordinary use; so that for want of habit it is difficult to turn one's mind in that direction: but if one turns it thither ever so little, one sees the principles fully, and one must have a quite inaccurate mind who reasons wrongly from principles so plain that it is almost impossible they should escape notice.
- Standard L Heavy ItalicWe stand on a field and throw a stone. We follow the motion of the stone. How can we be sure that it is the stone that is moving and not the surroundings? A well-known phenomenologist devoted a handful of densely written pages to investigating this process and championed a view that describes movement as a coherent, holistic activity that cannot be adequately described by either a mechanical or a philosophical view of consciousness.
- Standard S BlackAnd 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 BlackHe 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 L BlackAnd also nodes are often defined more by their context than by their very coordinates. As junctions, connecting points or simply as a basic unit they fundamentally define the structure of data, the architecture of shapes.
- Standard S Black ItalicAn 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 M Black ItalicWhether we view design as ‘creating with existing means’ or not, upon closer inspection, design has always been about constantly arranging things, and not just since the advent of computers. The ongoing alignment of shapes, images, letters with one another and within their surface.
- Standard L Black ItalicMoving 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.
- 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.
GT Canon in use

