The name “Bicyclette” was chosen because this typeface is all about balance and elegance. The idea was to create a highly contrasting sans-serif family, carefully balanced between gentle curves and sharp angles, with large capitals and uncommonly short lower case, through 6 distinctive weights. The letters are wide, and the capitals pop up in headlines, while the lower case leaves a lot of white space between the text lines because of its small x-height.
The edges are rounded (but not so much for the family to be characterized as rounded), just enough to make the text feel soft and gentle, while still retaining some of that technical sans sharpness. The Bicyclette character set supports Western and Central European languages and includes an extended set of monetary symbols. Each weight includes small caps, ligatures, proportional lining and oldstyle numbers, tabular figures, fractions and scientific superior/inferior figures.
Designed by Nikola Kostić.
Of all the things in this world that man has invented, nothing can compare to the alphabet. To be able to send to a friend or acquaintance, far away somewhere in the wide world, one’s thoughts on a piece of paper: to be able to read what others wrote two thousand years ago and to be able to write something that others will be able to read several thousand years later; that is a science almost transcending the bounds of the human mind, and one can say that whoever first invented it, was more God than man. The alphabet has opened the road to the human mind, enabling it to approach God to the limits of its possibilities. It was invented some four thousand years ago, and after its difficult and strange development it has become so easy that today there is no easier skill, and has spread so much in the world that at present in Europe there are peoples among whom there is no one who cannot read and write.
Tabular numbers line up throughout the weights and both styles – even in Black, which is perfect for columns of data in financial reports. This also works with oldstyle figures.
Each weight includes a set of ready-made fractions accessible via the OpenType feature. There is also a full set of numerators and denominators for creating custom fractions.
A set of superior/inferior figures for footnotes and scientific formulae is also included.
There is a set of 23 ligatures in each of the 7 fonts.
Oldstyle figures are included in the set. We like to use them because they do not disturb the visual flow of a long text like lining figures do.
If your text requires the use of capital letters, you can use proper small caps included in the set.
An extended set of monetary symbols can be a great asset when designing a financial report.