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Lacquer

A paint-pen display face with dripping capitals, hand drawn by Niki Polyocan and finished by Eli Block.

Display 1 style by Niki Polyocan, Eli Block OFL

Download family 284 KB Type your own text

Lacquer is a display typeface made of paint-pen capitals with drips running from the strokes. Lacquer was hand drawn by Niki Polyocan and extended into a font by Eli Block at Google Creative Lab. Lacquer has one Regular style with 437 glyphs, including alternate letterforms, and is released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 for posters and titles.

Lacquer font preview card
Preview drawn by trendhub from the font files.
Designers
Niki Polyocan, Eli Block
Classification
Display
License
SIL Open Font License 1.1
Styles
1 1 weight
Variable font
No
Glyphs
437
Languages checked
13 see the list
Last updated
version 1.100
Used for
HeadlinesPostersSocial media

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

Try Lacquer

Sample text

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

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

Weights and styles

  • Regular 400Lacquer Regular

About Lacquer

Lacquer is a display typeface that reproduces lettering made with a paint pen. The official notes say Niki Polyocan drew the letters by hand and Eli Block at Google Creative Lab extrapolated and finished them as a font. There is no conventional lowercase. In the specimen the capital keys give rough marker capitals with long drips falling below the baseline, while the lowercase keys give a second, slightly smaller set of capitals that is mostly drip-free, so the two cases can be mixed to control how much paint runs. Stroke ends are blunt and uneven, and the zero is slashed. The single Regular style holds 437 glyphs, which include dozens of alternates that keep repeated letters from looking identical. The character set is basic Latin, and Lacquer is not a variable font.

Where Lacquer works

Gig and event posters
Dripping capitals at large size give a headline the look of fresh paint on a wall.
Halloween and horror titles
The drips below the baseline read as running paint or ink, a familiar cue for spooky themes.
Streetwear and skate graphics
A short slogan in marker capitals matches hand-tagged artwork on shirts, decks and stickers.
Thumbnails and social posts
Switching between the dripping and the cleaner set of capitals varies a two- or three-word title.

Glyphs

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

Latin and Latin Extended characters in the preview subset; the complete family has 437 glyphs.

Language support

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

  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Spanish
  • Portuguese
  • Italian
  • Dutch
  • Swedish
  • Norwegian
  • Danish
  • Finnish
  • Icelandic
  • Catalan

Character sets found in the files: latin. 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 2019 The Lacquer Project Authors (https://github.com/Lacquer-Font/Lacquer)

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 Lacquer

Encode Sans Expanded Sans Serif

Lacquer is a display face for headings; Encode Sans Expanded is a sans serif family with 9 weights that can set the body text beside it.

Alegreya SC Serif

Lacquer is a display face for headings; Alegreya SC is a serif family with 5 weights that can set the body text beside it.

Google Sans Flex Sans Serif

Lacquer is a display face for headings; Google Sans Flex is a sans serif family with 9 weights that can set the body text beside it.

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 Lacquer 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: "Lacquer";
  src: url("/assets/fonts/Lacquer-Regular.ttf") format("truetype");
  font-weight: 400;
  font-style: normal;
  font-display: swap;
}

body {
  font-family: "Lacquer", sans-serif;
}

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

HTML, Google Fonts

Things to know

Capitals in both cases
Lowercase keys produce a second set of capitals with fewer drips, not small letters.
Drips need room below
The drips hang under the baseline, so tight line spacing makes them touch the line beneath.
Basic Latin only
Lacquer has the Latin subset only, without the Latin Extended set, Cyrillic or Greek.

FAQs

Is Lacquer free for commercial use?

Yes. Lacquer is licensed under the SIL Open Font License 1.1, so it can be used free of charge in personal and commercial work, changed and passed on. The fonts cannot be sold on their own, and derivatives remain under the same license.

Who designed Lacquer?

Lacquer was hand drawn with a paint pen by Niki Polyocan and finished as a font by Eli Block at Google Creative Lab.

Does Lacquer have lowercase letters?

No. Lacquer sets capitals in both cases: the lowercase keys give a second, calmer set of capitals with fewer drips.

How many weights does Lacquer have?

Lacquer has one weight, Regular 400, and no italic.

Which languages does Lacquer support?

Lacquer includes the letters needed for English and Western European languages such as French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Dutch.

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