Surveyor (typeface)

Surveyor is a Didone serif typeface that recalls type found on engraved maps and charts. It was designed by Tobias Frere-Jones in 2001 as a custom typeface for use in Martha Stewart Living magazine and released publicly in March 2013, in a wider range of styles, by the type foundry Hoefler & Frere-Jones (now known as Hoefler&Co.).

Describing it, Jonathan Hoefler said:

We had the twin goals of making a typeface that felt very handmade, to evoke the craft philosophy of the magazine, and that could handle all of the charts, tables, recipes, graphs, almanacs and step-by-step instructions that they run in the magazine. We had been waiting to do a typeface based on the distinct style of lettering you find on engraved maps ... A lot of the time, there are things that can be incorporated into the font that are relatively simple – like switching out an alternate character or interpolating a slightly different weight – that are easy for us to do in the process, but can save hundreds of hours in the client's production department.^[1][2][3]

Surveyor has a vertical axis and a high contrast of stroke weight similar to Bodoni or Didot but a less strident, more organic, structure^{[according to whom?]} recalling early nineteenth century faces like Bell, Scotch Roman, and Thorowgood. The italics have a slightly more extreme forward slant than is common and curved strokes often terminate in a ball.