Promoting a typeface meant for really small sizes in a booklet with given sizes of 17 x 24 cm it’s strange. 

Thomas Huot-Marchand’s purpose when working on Minuscule was to create a specific typeface for very small sizes, from 6 points and below. Each size would have a different drawing, due to the difficulty for human eyes 

to distinguish words thinner than a needle. Showing such typefaces in 48 points, as Erik Spiekerman claims, 

is akward, because their shapes are very different from the letters we are used to looking at. Yet lots of products like dictionaries, footnotes, packaging instructions or ingredients, need a lot of text in a small space and most 

of the time such texts cannot be easily read. 

This specimen shows the differences in shape, thickness, tracking of each version of Minuscule, analyzing letters and numbers’ details, then it shows how each typeface works in his specific size and a bigger one. Since they’re studied for one precise size, the design doesn’t look correct in smaller or greater ones.

Inktraps are the most evident hallmark of each version, especially the 2 and 3, and both sizes which are tricky to print. Minuscule 2 completely lacks curves and some letters are drawn with their counter part only, resulting in an oddly experimental typeface, though the others perform their task excellently.

Besides, Minuscule is a complete typeface, with all proportional and tabular oldstyle and lining numbers, smallcaps, maths symbols and accents for lots of languages. One typeface designed with a precise task and utilization in a field that lacks general attention like small texts by the french graphic and type designer Thomas Huot-Marchand. Find him at: