Lato
CategorySans-serif
ClassificationHumanist
Designer(s)Łukasz Dziedzic
Date releasedDecember 2010[1]
LicenseSIL Open Font License[2]
Websitewww.latofonts.com/lato-free-fonts/
Latest release version3.100.dev2

Lato is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Łukasz Dziedzic. It was released in 2010.[3] The name "Lato" is Polish for "summer".[4] The lato was published under the open-source Open Font License.[5]

As of August 2018, Lato is used on more than 9.6 million websites, and is the third most served font on Google Fonts, with over one billion views per day.[2]

Use

Lato has been used in various physical publications, including information signs and election campaign billboards.[6] It is the main font used on iCollege, Georgia State University's primary learning management system, and the official typeface of the Polish Government and the Polish bank Bank Pekao.

Lato has also been used for Chidusz, a Polish Jewish magazine and logotype of British international non-governmental organization (NGO) Save the Children since 2022.[7][8]

Development

Lato was created in 2010 for a Polish bank by Łukasz Dziedzic.[1] When the bank changed its stylistic vision, he shelved the typeface,[1] and released it later that year under the libre SIL Open Font License.[2][4]

After Lato was added to Google Fonts it quickly gained popularity,[9] becoming the third most used web font after Google's own Roboto and Open Sans, with over one billion views per day as of August 2018.[10]

Carlito is a forked typeface which is very similar to Lato, it is released by Google with metrics compatible with Microsoft's Calibri typeface.

Language support

Lato supports all Latin alphabets, along with Cyrillic, Greek, and IPA.[11] Lato was originally a type family of 400 symbols in 10 styles and is now 4000 symbols in 18 styles.[12]

Derivatives

Lato weights
Roman
Italic

The Lato typeface is available in nine weights from hairline to black, each of which has a distinct italic variant.[3] Each of these 18 variants is additionally available in a Lato Latin version, containing just the subset of glyphs required for European languages based on the Latin alphabet; this allows for smaller file sizes.[3]

An update to Lato was made in 2014 with additional glyphs. This updated version was marketed as "Lato 2.0".[13]

References

  1. ^ a b c Martyna Trykozko, Lato podbija świat, czyli jak nieudane zlecenie doprowadziło do spektakularnego sukcesu Polaka, Gazeta.pl, 18 September 2015
  2. ^ a b c "Lato". Google Fonts. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  3. ^ a b c latofonts.com, The Fonts
  4. ^ a b Jeremiah Shoaf, Taking A Second Look At Free Fonts, published in Typography: Practical Considerations And Design Patterns, Smashing Magazine GmbH, 2014, p. 39
  5. ^ "Lato fonts - Fedora Project Wiki". fedoraproject.org. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
  6. ^ Łukasz Majchrzyk, "Font "Lato" światowym sukcesem Łukasza Dziedzica", mobiRANK, 21 September 2015.
  7. ^ Xiao, Veronika (16 July 2018). "Lato — The Font". Medium. Archived from the original on 27 January 2023. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
  8. ^ Kingsley, Thomas (18 January 2022). "Save the Children stops using font designed by paedophile artist". The Independent. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
  9. ^ "Lato". Print & Publishing (in Polish). No. 211. 8 December 2015. p. 18. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  10. ^ Google Fonts, Analytics
  11. ^ Antoni Bohdanowicz, "Z czcionką jest jak z krzesłem, najpierw musi być wygodne, a dopiero potem artystyczne" – mówi typograf Łukasz Dziedzic, na:Temat, 6 April 2014
  12. ^ "What Makes a Font Popular?". Culture.pl. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
  13. ^ "Lato fonts". Lato. Retrieved 18 January 2021.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lato.
Free and open-source typography
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