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Bentham

A high-contrast modern-face serif by Ben Weiner, drawn from nineteenth-century map, gravestone and machine lettering.

Serif 1 style by Ben Weiner OFL

Download family 49 KB Type your own text

Bentham is a high-contrast serif typeface by Ben Weiner, inspired by lettering found on maps, gravestones and cast-iron machine plates of the nineteenth century. It has ball terminals, swelling curves and old-style figures. Bentham comes in one Regular style with 318 glyphs, is released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 and suits titles and short texts.

Bentham font preview card
Preview drawn by trendhub from the font files.
Designer
Ben Weiner
Classification
Serif
License
SIL Open Font License 1.1
Styles
1 1 weight
Variable font
No
Glyphs
318
Languages checked
18 see the list
Last updated
version 002.002
Used for
HeadlinesEditorialElegant

Official source: Google Fonts. Facts on this page were read from the font files and the source’s published data.

Try Bentham

Sample text

Type over the sample to test your own words. The preview loads a Latin subset of Bentham; the download contains the complete files.

Bentham font specimen: alphabet, numerals and weights
Bentham specimen: alphabet, numerals and weights. Image drawn by trendhub from the font files.

Weights and styles

  • Regular 400Bentham Regular

About Bentham

Bentham is a serif typeface in the modern-face manner, the genre of sharp thick-and-thin contrast that was common in nineteenth-century book printing. Ben Weiner did not copy a printing type. He looked at letters made by cartographers, stonecutters and engravers of that period, on maps, gravestones and iron machine plates, and drew what they have in common, coloured by his own hand. The specimen shows vertical stress, thin flat serifs, curves that bulge before they narrow, round bobbles on the ends of a, c, f, r and y, and airy letter spacing. Numerals are old-style figures and the Q carries a long looping tail. The official notes call the result an in-between design, faithful neither to the printing types nor to the lettering. Bentham has a single Regular style with 318 glyphs for Latin and Latin Extended.

Where Bentham works

Period titles and covers
Lettering drawn from nineteenth-century maps and inscriptions fits historical novels, museum graphics and heritage brands.
Map labels and infographics
The engraved character and old-style figures suit place names and dates on illustrated maps.
Chapter heads and pull quotes
Strong contrast and ball terminals show clearly at larger sizes above or beside the text.
Certificates and plaques
Open spacing and vertical stress echo the engraved maker's plates among the design's sources.

Glyphs

!"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}¡£¤

Latin and Latin Extended characters in the preview subset; the complete family has 318 glyphs.

Language support

The family contains the core letters these languages are written with:

  • English
  • French
  • Spanish
  • Portuguese
  • Italian
  • Dutch
  • Swedish
  • Finnish
  • Turkish
  • Polish
  • Czech
  • Slovak
  • Hungarian
  • Croatian
  • Slovenian
  • Lithuanian
  • Latvian
  • Estonian

Character sets found in the files: latin, latin-ext. The language list is a check of required letters against the font, not a promise of typographic quality in each language.

License

SIL Open Font License 1.1Copyright (c) 2010, Ben Weiner (ben@readingtype.org.uk), with Reserved Font Name Bentham.

What the license allows

  • 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.

This is a short summary, not legal advice. The license text decides: read the full OFL text. A copy is included in the download.

Fonts that pair with Bentham

Inria Sans Sans Serif

Bentham is serif and Inria Sans is sans serif (3 weights): the difference in structure separates headings from text.

Atkinson Hyperlegible Mono Monospace

Atkinson Hyperlegible Mono is a monospace family (7 weights) for code and figures next to Bentham as the text face.

Montserrat Alternates Sans Serif

Bentham is serif and Montserrat Alternates is sans serif (9 weights): the difference in structure separates headings from text.

Suggestions come from simple rules on the records: a contrasting classification and enough weights to carry body text. They are a starting point, not a verdict.

Use Bentham on the web

Download the family and host the files on your own site, then declare them in CSS. Please do not link to the files on trendhub.net: preview files here are subsets and their addresses change.

CSS, self-hosted
@font-face {
  font-family: "Bentham";
  src: url("/assets/fonts/Bentham-Regular.ttf") format("truetype");
  font-weight: 400;
  font-style: normal;
  font-display: swap;
}

body {
  font-family: "Bentham", serif;
}

Or load it from the official source. Google Fonts serves Bentham with this markup:

HTML, Google Fonts

Things to know

Regular only
Bentham has one weight, 400, and no italic or bold.
Old-style figures
In the specimen the numerals vary in height and several descend below the baseline, so they do not line up in columns.
Loose default spacing
Letters are set well apart in the specimen. Headlines may need tightening by hand.

FAQs

Is Bentham free for commercial use?

Bentham can be used in commercial work at no charge under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. The license also permits modifying and redistributing the file, but the font cannot be sold on its own, and derivatives keep the same license and may not use the reserved name Bentham without permission.

Who designed Bentham?

Bentham was designed by Ben Weiner, who holds the copyright named in the license.

What is Bentham based on?

Bentham draws on letters found on maps, gravestones and cast-iron machine plates of the nineteenth century, examined alongside the modern-face printing types of the same century.

How many weights does Bentham have?

Bentham has one weight, Regular 400, in an upright style.

Which languages does Bentham support?

Bentham includes the letters needed for English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, Turkish, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Croatian, Slovenian, Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian.

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