Wédōra – Staub und Blut by Markus Heitz, Knaur

This is the first time that I’ve spotted Orpheus in contemporary use. Originally designed by Walter Tiemann for Klingspor in 1928, this typeface was digitally revived and expanded by Patrick Griffin and Kevin Allan King for Canada Type in 2011.

The o with a decorative diamond in the counter is one of the many alternates added by Canada Type. What purists will consider a sacrilege might have tipped the scales for Orpheus Pro in this use: such quaint adornments certainly help to subtly establish a fantasy atmosphere, without going fully uncialish or blackletter-y. One of the earliest digital typeface designs to incorporate similar features was Jonathan Barnbrook’s Ma(n)son (Emigre, 1992). Interestingly, an amateurish freebie emulation of Mason Serif is named Morpheus, which in turn has been copied (or “redone”) by David Nalle as Orpheus.

The diacritics were likely added for similar reasons — Wédōra looks a lot more mysterious than Wedora, doesn’t it? While the acute is largely safe, the macron on o proves to be too outlandish for our Western reality and is omitted on the publisher’s website. (To be fair, our own font setup can’t properly deal with it either – we’re working on it.)