Castine gets its name from a small coastal Maine town with a seagoing heritage and long history. The town has an old cemetery with a few 200-plus-year-old headstones whose distinctive carved lettering inspired the typeface that shares its name.
Castine’s long, sharp serifs and slight unevenness recall old, simpler times when character meant more than precision. Spaced loosely in display situations, it has a broken-in feel, like comfortable shoes. It’s also impressively legible at smaller point sizes.
Castine has two styles, a roman and a true italic. Each has a full complement of “long s” and other ligatures, lining and old-style figures, some winged skull ornaments, and full support for Central/Eastern European languages.
