Alcea
Alcea is a serif typeface in six weights with matching italics, shaped by a tension between handwritten energy and sharp lines, between straight construction and tapered strokes. The result is an asymmetric rhythm that lends the typeface a distinctive and expressive presence in any application.
Characteristic
The asymmetry draws from the logic of a true italic, where serifs follow different rules. Letters such as v, w, x, and y pair a wedge on one side with a serif on the other.
The lowercase k replaces the usual arm with a loop. For a more conventional appearance, stylistic alternates are available for k, v, w, x, and y, placing the serifs in their traditional positions.
Even seemingly straight horizontals, as in E and F, avoid neutral bars: they lean slightly inward and gain weight toward the stem or serif.
OpenType Features
Beyond the alternates for classic serif placement in R, K, k, v, w, x, and y, Alcea offers a wide range of stylistic sets, including alternates for A, G, J, K, Q, and R. Additional sets for a, e, f, g, k, p, ß, and h, i, l, m, n and u introduce elements of the true italic, allowing the upright styles to lean even further toward a handwritten feel. Conversely, the italic – where many letters are substituted by default – can be adjusted toward a more oblique direction.
Alcea comes with a full set of small caps, offering additional typographic variety. They expand the palette for nuanced hierarchy and subtle emphasis while fully supporting all stylistic alternates.
The family is further rounded out by standard OpenType features such as tabular figures, superscripts, arbitrary fractions, a slashed zero, and localized forms.
Uniwidth Punctuation
Punctuation have dynamic widths across different weights. As a result, tabular settings using periods and commas may vary slightly in overall width when multiple weights are combined.
For this purpose, Stylistic Set 16 offers uniwidth versions of the following punctuation marks: . , : ; - –. Rather than adopting tabular figure spacing, which would make the text appear too loose, these glyphs maintain a consistent internal width across all weights.
Variable Font
The variable font supports both weight (200–700) and italic axes (0°–12°). Automatic substitution of italic forms is disabled to ensure smooth animations, but can be activated manually via stylistic sets. If automatic substitutions are preferred, please feel free to get in touch by email.
Supported Languages
Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Azerbaijani, Basque, Belarusian, Bislama,
Bosnian, Breton, Catalan, Chamorro, Chichewa, Comorian, Croatian, Czech,
Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino/Tagalog,
Finnish, Flemish, French, Gaelic, Gagauz, German, Gikuyu,
Gilbertese/Kiribati, Haitian-Creole, Hawaiian, Hungarian, Icelandic,
Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Javanese, Kashubian, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi,
Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luba/Ciluba/Kasai, Luxembourgish, Malagasy,
Malay, Maltese, Maori, Marquesan, Moldovan/Romanian, Montenegrin,
Nauruan, Ndebele, Norwegian, Oromo, Palauan/Belauan, Polish, Portuguese,
Quechua, Romanian, Romansh, Sami, Samoan, Sango, Serbian, Sesotho,
Setswana, Seychellois-Creole, Swazi, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian,
Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tahitian, Tetum,
Tok-Pisin, Tongan, Tsonga, Tswana, Turkish, Turkmen, Tuvaluan, Uzbek,
Wallisian, Walloon, Welsh, Xhosa, Zulu
Glyph Order and Preglyphs
All nice to type fonts provide a structured glyph order with special
preglyphs for a better overview – just choose ‘CID / GID’ instead of
‘Unicode’ in your Glyphs overview. To save webspace and loading time
webfonts don’t come with preglyphs.
Typeface Alcea
Designed by Gabriel Richter
Published in 2026
Spacing and Kerning by Igino Marini
Quality Assurance by Christoph Koeberlin
Showings by Caroline Dietl
Alcea is a trademark of nice to type
Copyright © 2026 by nice to type – Gabriel Richter. All rights reserved.