# Bona Nova font

> A digitisation of Andrzej Heidrich's 1971 Bona: a light, calligraphic serif in Regular, Italic and Bold.

Bona Nova is a serif family that digitises Bona, a typeface drawn in 1971 by Andrzej Heidrich, with digital work credited to Mateusz Machalski and Capitalics. Bona Nova has Regular, Italic and Bold, 2,220 glyphs, and Latin, Cyrillic, Greek and Hebrew character sets. Bona Nova is released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 and suits book and editorial text.

## Facts

- Classification: [Serif](https://trendhub.net/fonts/category/serif)
- Designed by: Capitalics, Mateusz Machalski, Andrzej Heidrich
- License: SIL Open Font License 1.1 (https://openfontlicense.org/open-font-license-official-text/)
- Styles: 3 (Regular 400, Bold 700; with italics)
- Variable font: No
- Glyphs: 2220
- Character sets: arabic, cyrillic, greek, hebrew, latin, latin-ext, vietnamese
- Last updated: 2025-09-02
- Official source: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Bona+Nova
- Page: https://trendhub.net/fonts/bona-nova
- Tagged for: Body text, Editorial, Elegant

## About Bona Nova

Bona Nova is a serif typeface that brings Bona, a 1971 design by Andrzej Heidrich, into digital form. According to the official notes, Heidrich is also known for designing Polish banknotes, and the original Bona was a cursive face; the upright Regular and the Bold were added during the revival, together with the original author, so that the family forms a set of three. The specimen shows a light text face with small, sharp serifs, old-style numerals that rise and fall like lowercase letters, and a capital R and Q with long calligraphic tails. The family holds 2,220 glyphs, and the revival added small capitals, alternate characters and OpenType features. Character sets reach beyond Latin to Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew and Vietnamese. Mateusz Machalski is named as designer in the font files and Capitalics as the manufacturer.

## License

SIL Open Font License 1.1. Copyright 2020 The Bona Nova Project Authors (https://github.com/kosmynkab/Brygada-1918)

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

- **Book and long-form text**: The light colour, modest serifs and old-style numerals sit quietly in paragraphs, with the Italic for emphasis and titles of works.
- **Texts mixing several scripts**: Latin, Cyrillic, Greek and Hebrew character sets let one family set quotations and names across those alphabets.
- **Editorial headings with small caps**: The small capitals added in the digitisation give bylines and running heads a second typographic level without a second family.
- **Polish cultural and heritage projects**: The design descends from a 1971 typeface by the designer of Polish banknotes, a documented origin for exhibition and publishing work.
- **Display lines with a flourish**: The long tail of the R and Q becomes a visible detail when a title is set large.

## Things to know

- **Three styles, no bold italic**: The family is Regular 400, Italic 400 and Bold 700. Bold has no italic companion.
- **Numerals are old-style by default**: The specimen shows figures of varying height with a small zero; they blend into running text more than into tables.
- **Static files**: Bona Nova is not a variable font. Each of the styles is a separate TTF file.

## FAQs

### Is Bona Nova free for commercial use?

Yes. The SIL Open Font License 1.1 covers Bona Nova: it may be used in personal and commercial projects, modified and redistributed. It cannot be sold on its own, and a modified version keeps the same license and may not use a Reserved Font Name without permission.

### Who designed Bona Nova?

Bona Nova is credited to Capitalics, Mateusz Machalski and Andrzej Heidrich. Heidrich drew the original Bona in 1971, and the font files name Machalski as designer of the digital version.

### How many weights does Bona Nova have?

Bona Nova has two weights, Regular 400 and Bold 700, and the Regular has an italic, which makes three styles.

### Does Bona Nova include small caps?

Yes, according to the official description: small capitals, alternates and OpenType functions were designed for Bona Nova as part of the digitisation.

### Which languages does Bona Nova support?

Bona Nova includes the letters needed for English and other Latin-script languages such as Polish, German, French, Turkish and Vietnamese, as well as Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian and Greek. A Hebrew character set is also present.

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Source: https://trendhub.net/fonts/bona-nova (trendhub)