Depicto (2 fonts)

Depicto is a pixelated typeface with asymmetrical serifs intended to depict emojis in coarse mosaic shapes and represented in two styles that perfectly complement each other – Mono (casual font) and Mosaic (color font). The main font feature is a large set of pictograms, which are activated using the Stylistic Set and typed right in a text with a keywords like :smile: :happy: :sad: :pear: :rose: :horse: :bike: :house: and so on. See the complete list of 600+ pictograms in the Specimen pdf.

Concept

I loved to play with plastic construction bricks as a child. And of course I loved 8-bit video games. All of this has been reinterpreted in the Depicto typeface. Out of respect for 8-bitness, almost all the dimensions are multiples of 8 – a letters elements have a width of 80 points and a length of 80, 160, 240, 400, and so on, as well the spacing between the characters and the vertical metrics.

Although inspired by pixelation, the font plays with its own geometry. Using simple squared shapes, it balances between pixel-perfect and diagonal mosaic. The letters construction is based on rectangles – horizontal, vertical, and rotated by 45 degrees. It is important to note that the letters consist of separate non-intersecting elements, each of which, in the Depicto Mosaic font style, is painted in different colors.

The font also uses upper left and lower right horizontal serif strokes. Such asymmetrical serifs are typical for Ukrainian typography since the works of Heorhiy Narbut. Their digitization and pixelization calls for a new look at artistic constants.

Tech details

Specimen: https://michaelrafailyk.com/typeface/specimen/Depicto.pdf
Styles: Mono, Mosaic (color font)
Scripts: Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Hebrew
Languages: 480+
Glyphs: 2440
Kerning: 906 class-to-class pairs
Hinting: Manual PostScript
Format: OTF – OpenType with PostScript outlines

Features

Color font: Depicto Mosaic is color font that contains both OpenType-SVG and COLR/CPAL tables. This style is dedicated to my love for plastic construction color bricks. Every letter element is painted in random but non-repeating color from the palette of 17 predefined colors. This palette is selected in such a way that it looks sufficiently contrasting on both white and black backgrounds. But of course, you can change the palette in the Photoshop by using Blending Options with Color Overlay (see an examples on the promo images), or in the Illustrator by converting the text to outlines and then Recolor Arkwork.

Color fonts supported since: Photoshop CC 2017, Illustrator CC 2018, InDesign CC 2019, QuarkXPress 2018, Pixelmator (macOS 10.14), Sketch (macOS 10.14), Affinity Designer (macOS 10.14), Paint.NET (Windows 10), Microsoft Word (Windows 10), Windows 10, macOS 10.13 High Sierra, Safari 11 (macOS 10.13, iOS 12), Chrome 70, Firefox 26, Opera 58, Edge 12 (Windows 10), IE 9 (Windows 8).

An applications that doesn't support color fonts yet: Figma, Adobe XD, Premiere Pro, After Effects. In these applications, Depicto Mosaic font style will appear in a fallback black color.

Stylistic Set 1 “Pictograms”: The main font feature is a large set of 600+ pictograms and emoticons. See the complete list of pictograms and their keywords in the Specimen pdf. It doesn't cover all possible Unicode pictograms, but the set may be expanded in future updates. There are a three ways how to use them.

1. By manually selecting pictograms from the Glyphs panel in a graphic editor.
2. By copying pictograms from the Specimen pdf and pasting them into the text.
3. By activating the Stylistic Set 1 and typing the pictogram keywords like :smile: :happy: :rofl: :sad: :facepalm: :pear: :rose: :horse: :bike: :house: :laptop: and so on. For example: I'm so :happy: to see these beautiful :tulips: and :roses: in your :garden:, good work :clap:. GitHub, Slack, Basecamp, and others use such a markdown approach at the application level, but Depicto does this word processing at the font level, so it's available right in a text/graphic editors and a web browsers.

Here's how to apply Stylistic Set to the text.

InDesign (2017+): Character panel > OpenType button > Stylistic Sets. Illustrator (2017+): OpenType panel > Stylistic Sets icon. Photoshop (2020+): Properties panel > Type Options > Stylistic Sets icon. CSS: font-feature-settings: "ss01" 1;

Stylistic Set 2 “Change Emoji Skin Tone”: This way you can change the skin tone of emoticons (smileys). In the Depicto Mosaic style, a classic yellow smileys become brown ones. And in Depicto Mono style the result depends on the background color – for a white background, white faces are replaced by black ones, and accordingly, for a black background, black faces are replaced by white ones. So just remember – when you change the background color from light to dark or vice versa (using Depicto Mono font), the faces appear inverted, and you can use this Stylistic Set to reinvert them back if needed.

Stylistic Set 3 “Arrows”: Left <- Right ->; Up <| Down |> Left Right <-> Up Down <|> North West <\ North East /> South East \> South West Stylistic Set 4 “Circled Numbers”: Numbers are replaced with a numbers in a circle.
Stylistic Set 5 “Circled Black Numbers”: Numbers are replaced with a numbers in a black circle.
Small Capitals: Lowercase letters are replaced with Small Capitals forms.
Capitals to Small Capitals: Uppercase letters, all figures, and some punctuation are replaced with Small Capitals forms.
Figures (numbers): Lining, Oldstyle, Proportional, Tabular, Circled, Circled Black, Superscript, Subscript, Numerator, Denominator.
Fractions: ¼½¾⅐⅑⅒⅓⅔⅕⅖⅗⅘⅙⅚⅛⅜⅝⅞⅟ (precomposed). Any other fractions (even those typed through a slash) will also be displayed correctly, with the automatic replacement to Numerator + fraction + Denominator.
Slashed Zero: Lining and Oldstyle 0 figures are replaced with a slashed/dotted zero.
Ordinals: adehlnorst
Case Sensitive Forms: ()[]{}‹›«»-–—•·#%‰@ and Arrows are centered on capitals. Oldstyle figures (if presented) are replaced with Lining figures.
Case conversion for monotonic Greek: ΆΈΉΊΌΎΏ. Greek uppercase accented characters lose their tonos accent and retain only dieresis in All Caps mode. Turned on by default. If you need tonos accents in All Caps then turn off Contextual Alternates (calt) feature.
Standard Ligatures: ff
Localized Forms: Characters substituted by their adapted alternate form for Azeri, Bulgarian, Catalan, Dutch, German, Kazakh, Macedonian, Moldavian, Polish, Romanian, Serbian, Tatar, Turkish languages.
Glyph Composition/Decomposition: Set of diacritics (600+ characters) precomposed from a base characters and combined diacritical marks.
Mark Positioning: Diacritical marks positioned for a base characters.

Languages

Abenaki, Abron, Acheron, Achinese, Achuar-Shiwiar, Adamawa Fulfulde, Adangme, Afar, Afrikaans (Latin), Aghem, Aguaruna, Aja, Akan, Albanian, Alsatian, Amahuaca, Amarakaeri, Amis, Andaandi (Dongolawi), Anuta, Ao Naga, Apinayé, Arabela, Aragonese, Aranese, Aromanian, Arrernte, Arvanitic (Latin), Asháninka, Asturian, Asu, Atayal, Awa-Cuaiquer, Awetí, Aymara, Azerbaijani (Latin, Cyrillic), Baatonum, Bafia, Bagirmi Fulfulde, Balinese, Balkan Romani, Bambara (Latin), Baoulé, Bari, Basaa, Bashkir (Latin), Basque, Batak (Latin), Belarusian (Latin, Cyrillic), Bemba, Bena, Biali, Bikol, Bini, Bislama, Boko, Bora, Borgu Fulfulde, Bouna Kulango, Bosnian, Breton, Buginese (Latin), Bulgarian, Buryat, Bushi, Candoshi-Shapra, Cape Verdean Creole, Caquinte, Caribbean Hindustani, Cashibo-Cacataibo, Cashinahua, Catalan, Cebuano, Chachi, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chayahuita, Chechen, Chewa (Latin), Chickasaw, Chiga, Chiltepec Chinantec, Chokwe, Chuukese, Cimbrian, Cofán, Colognian, Cornish, Corsican, Creek (Muscogee), Croatian, Czech, Dagaare, Dagbani, Danish, Dawan, Dehu, Delaware, Dendi, Dholuo, Dimli, Dinka, Ditammari, Drehu, Duala, Dutch, Dungan, Dyula, Embu, English, Erzya, Ese Ejja, Esperanto, Estonian, Ewe, Ewondo, Falam Chin, Fanti, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, Folkspraak, Fon, French, Friulian, Frisian, Fula, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, Ga’anda, Garifuna, Gen, Genoese, German, Gikuyu, Gilbertese, Gonja, Gooniyandi, Greek, Greenlandic (Kalaallisut), Guadeloupean Creole, Guarani, Gusii (Latin), Gwich’in, Haitian, Hakha Chin (Latin), Hän, Hani, Hausa (Latin), Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hebrew, Ho-Chunk, Hopi, Hotcąk (Latin), Huastec, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ido, Igbo (Latin), Ilocano, Indonesian, Interglossa, Interlingua, Irish, Istro-Romanian, Italian, Ixcatlán Mazatec, Jamaican, Javanese (Latin), Jèrriais, Jola, Kabuverdianu, Kabiyè, Kabuverdianu, Kabyle (Latin), Kaingang, Kako, Kala Lagaw Ya, Kalaallisut, Kalenjin, Kalmyk (Cyrillic), Kamba, Kanuri, Kaonde, Kapampangan (Latin), Kaqchikel, Karachay (Cyrillic), Karakalpak (Latin), Karelian, Kashubian, Kazakh, Kekchí, Kenzi, Khalkha (Cyrillic), Khasi, Khoekhoe, K’iche’, Kikuyu, Kimbundu, Kinyarwanda (Ruanda), Kiribati, Kirmanjki, Kirundi (Rundi), Kissi, Kituba, Klingon, Kölsch, Kongo, Konzo, Koyra Chiini, Koyraboro Senni, Kpelle, Krio, Kuanyama, Kumyk, Kurdish, Kven Finnish, Kwasio, Kyrgyz (Cyrillic), Ladin, Ladino, Lakota, Lamnso’, Langi, Latgalian, Latin, Latino sine Flexione, Latvian, Ligurian, Limba, Lingala, Lithuanian, Lobi, Lojban, Lombard, Low German, Lozi, Luba-Katanga, Luba-Lulua, Luo, Luxembourgish, Luyia, Maasai, Maasina Fulfulde, Macedonian, Machame, Madurese (Latin), Makhuwa, Makonde, Makwe, Malagasy (Latin), Malaysian Malay (Latin), Maltese, Mam, Maninkakan, Manx, Maore Comorian, Māori, Mapudungun, Marquesan, Marshallese, Masai, Matsés, Mauritian Creole, Mbelime, Megleno-Romanian, Mende, Meriam Mir, Meru, Meta’ (Latin), Metlatónoc Mixtec, Mezquital Otomi, Mi’kmaq, Minangkabau, Mirandese, Mískito, Miyobe, Mizo, Mohawk, Moksha, Moldovan, Mongolian (Cyrillic), Montagnais, Montenegrin (Latin, Cyrillic), Mossi, Mundang, Munsee, Murrinh-Patha, Murui Huitoto, Mwani, Naga Pidgin, Nagamese Creole, Nahuatl, Nama, Nateni, Navajo, Ndebele, Ndonga, Neapolitan, Ngazidja Comorian, Ngiemboon, Ngiyambaa, Ngomba, Nigerian Fulfulde, Niuean, Nobiin, Nomatsiguenga, Noongar, Norwegian (Bokmål, Nynorsk), Novial, Nuer, Nyamwezi, Nyanja, Nyankole, Nyemba, Nzima, Occidental (Interlingue), Occitan, Ojitlán Chinantec, Old Icelandic, Old Norse, Onĕipŏt, Oromo, Oroqen, Oshiwambo (Ovambo), Ossetian (Latin, Cyrillic), Otuho, Páez, Palauan, Paluan, Pampanga, Papantla Totonac, Papiamentu, Pedi, Picard, Pichis Ashéninka, Piedmontese, Pijin, Pintupi-Luritja, Pipil, Pohnpeian, Polish, Portuguese, Potawatomi, Prussian, Pulaar, Pular, Purepecha, Qiandong Miao, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romani, Romanian, Romansh, Rombo, Rotokas, Russian, Rusyn, Rwa, Sakha, Samburu, Sami (Inari, Lule, Northern, Southern, Pite, Skolt, Ume), Samoan, Sango, Sangu, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Secoya, Sena, Serbian, Seri, Seychellois Creole, Shambala, Sharanahua, Shawnee, Shilluk, Shipibo-Conibo, Shona, Shuar, Sicilian, Silesian, Siona, Slovak, Slovene (Slovenian), Slovio (Latin), Soga, Somali, Soninke, Sorbian (Lower, Upper), Sotho (Nothern, Southern), Spanish, Sranan, Sukuma, Sundanese (Latin), Susu, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Swiss German, Tachelhit (Latin), Tagalog, Tahitian, Taita, Tajik (Cyrillic), Talysh, Tasawaq, Tatar (Cyrillic, Latin), Tedim Chin, Teso, Tetum, Ticuna, Timne, Tiv, Toba, Tojolabal, Tok Pisin, Tokelauan, Tonga, Tongan, Tosk, Totontepec Mixe, Tsafiki, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin, Cyrillic), Tuvaluan, Tuvan, Twi, Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Uab Meto, Ukrainian, Ulithian, Umbundu, Urarina, Uyghur (Cyrillic), Uzbek (Latin, Cyrillic), Vai, Venda, Venetian, Veps, Vietnamese, Volapük, Võro, Vunjo, Waama, Waci Gbe, Wallisian, Walloon, Walser, Wangaaybuwan-Ngiyambaa, Waorani, Waray, Warlpiri, Wasa, Wayuu, Welsh, Wik-Mungkan, Wiradjuri, Wolof (Latin), Xavante, Xhosa, Xwela Gbe, Yagua, Yanesha’, Yangben, Yanomamö, Yao, Yapese, Yindjibarndi, Yoruba (Latin), Yucateco, Záparo, Zapotec, Zarma, Zazaki, Zulu, Zuni.

The typeface was designed by Michael Rafailyk in 2023.