# Judson font > A text serif made for African languages in Latin script, with stacked diacritics and IPA characters. Judson is a serif typeface by Daniel Johnson, designed for African literacy and stocked with the characters and precomposed combinations used by the languages of Africa that are written with Latin-based alphabets. Judson has three styles, Regular, Italic and Bold, with 855 glyphs, and is released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 for books and teaching material. ## Facts - Classification: [Serif](https://trendhub.net/fonts/category/serif) - Designed by: Daniel Johnson - 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: 855 - Character sets: latin, latin-ext, vietnamese - Last updated: 2025-09-11 - Official source: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Judson - Page: https://trendhub.net/fonts/judson - Tagged for: Body text, Editorial ## About Judson Judson is a serif typeface with a practical purpose: its designer, Daniel Johnson, drew it for African literacy and filled it with the letters, accented forms and precomposed combinations needed by the languages of Africa that use Latin-based alphabets. OpenType tables position diacritical marks, including marks stacked on one another, and the designer's notes stress that each character should be easy to tell from the others, in the italic as well. The roman also carries the International Phonetic Alphabet. In the specimen Judson is a moderately contrasted book face with bracketed serifs, round ball terminals on a, c, f and r, and fairly wide, open letters. Three styles exist, Regular, Italic and Bold; there is no bold italic. The fonts hold 855 glyphs across Latin, Latin Extended and Vietnamese, and the license is the SIL Open Font License 1.1. ## License SIL Open Font License 1.1. Copyright (c) 2009, 2010, 2011 Daniel Johnson (). 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 - **Literacy and school material**: The glyph set was assembled for African languages in Latin script, with OpenType positioning for their diacritics. - **Dictionaries and language study**: The roman includes the International Phonetic Alphabet, so pronunciations can share a typeface with the entries. - **Books and reports**: Regular, Italic and Bold cover text, emphasis and headings in a conventional book setting. - **Text with stacked accents**: Marks placed above other marks are positioned by the font, which also helps Vietnamese and tone-marked text. ## Things to know - **No bold italic**: Judson has Regular, Italic and Bold. Software that needs a bold italic will synthesise one. - **IPA in the roman**: According to the designer's notes, International Phonetic Alphabet support is in the regular roman face. - **Static files**: The package contains three static TrueType files. Judson is not a variable font. ## FAQs ### Is Judson free for commercial use? Yes. Judson 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. ### Who designed Judson? Judson was designed by Daniel Johnson, who holds the copyright. ### How many weights does Judson have? Judson has two weights, Regular 400 and Bold 700, and an italic for the Regular only, which makes three styles. ### What was Judson designed for? Judson was designed for African literacy. It gathers the characters and accent combinations used by African languages written in Latin script and positions their diacritics through OpenType. ### Which languages does Judson support? Beyond its African-language character set, Judson includes the letters needed for English and other Latin-script languages such as French, German, Turkish, Polish and Vietnamese. --- Source: https://trendhub.net/fonts/judson (trendhub)