# Balthazar font

> A sturdy small-serif face by Dario Muhafara, inspired by bistro and café lettering, with a lowercase and old-style figures.

Balthazar is a serif typeface by Dario Manuel Muhafara, inspired by the lettering seen on bistros and cafés in New York City and Paris. It has tiny sharp serifs, a high x-height and a full lowercase. Balthazar comes in one Regular style with 247 glyphs and is released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.

## Facts

- Classification: [Serif](https://trendhub.net/fonts/category/serif)
- Designed by: Dario Manuel Muhafara
- License: SIL Open Font License 1.1 (https://openfontlicense.org/open-font-license-official-text/)
- Styles: 1 (Regular 400)
- Variable font: No
- Glyphs: 247
- Character sets: latin
- Last updated: 2025-09-16
- Official source: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Balthazar
- Page: https://trendhub.net/fonts/balthazar
- Tagged for: Headlines, Branding, Editorial

## About Balthazar

Balthazar is a serif typeface modelled on the engraved-looking capitals common on bistro and café fronts in New York City and Paris. Unlike most faces of that genre, the official notes point out, it includes lowercase letters. They also list its construction: a high x-height for compact text, a general form that is less condensed than its models, diagonal stress, gentle contrast, and a weight slightly bolder than normal so that it rasterises well on screen. In the specimen the serifs are tiny, sharp spurs at the ends of sturdy strokes, the capitals are broad, and the numerals are old-style figures with a small 0 and 1 and descending 3, 4, 5, 7 and 9. Dario Muhafara designed it for the tipo foundry. Balthazar has one Regular style with 247 glyphs in the Latin subset, and the copyright notice reserves its name.

## License

SIL Open Font License 1.1. Copyright (c) 2011, Dario Manuel Muhafara (http://www.tipo.net.ar), with Reserved Font Name "Balthazar".

Allowed:
- Use the fonts in personal and commercial work, in print, on the web and in apps.
- Modify the fonts and build new versions from them.
- Redistribute the fonts, on their own or bundled with software, as long as the license text and copyright notice go with them.

Conditions:
- The fonts cannot be sold by themselves.
- A modified version must stay under the same license and cannot use a Reserved Font Name without the copyright holder's permission.
- The authors' names cannot be used to promote a modified version without permission.

Summary only, not legal advice. Full text: https://openfontlicense.org/open-font-license-official-text/

## Where it works

- **Café and restaurant menus**: The design takes its cue from bistro lettering, and old-style figures blend prices into the line.
- **Shopfront-style logos**: Broad capitals with tiny sharp serifs look engraved on a sign, stamp or label.
- **Short texts on screen**: The slightly bold weight and high x-height were chosen for clean rendering at text sizes.
- **Headlines with mixed case**: A real lowercase lets a headline keep the engraved flavour without being set in capitals only.

## Things to know

- **Figures are old-style**: Numerals differ in height and several drop below the baseline, as the specimen shows.
- **Single weight**: Balthazar has Regular 400 only, with no italic or bold.
- **Small character set**: The file holds 247 glyphs in the Latin subset; there is no Latin Extended subset.

## FAQs

### Is Balthazar free for commercial use?

Yes. Balthazar is published under the SIL Open Font License 1.1, which allows personal and commercial use, modification and redistribution. The font cannot be sold on its own, and modified versions stay under the same license and may not use a Reserved Font Name without permission.

### Who designed Balthazar?

Balthazar was designed by Dario Manuel Muhafara for the tipo foundry.

### How many weights does Balthazar have?

Balthazar has one weight, Regular 400.

### Does Balthazar have lowercase letters?

Yes. Balthazar includes a lowercase, which the official notes call unusual for its engraved-capitals genre.

### Which languages does Balthazar support?

Balthazar includes the letters needed for English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Estonian and the Nordic languages.

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Source: https://trendhub.net/fonts/balthazar (trendhub)