MFB Thermo

Designed in 1931, by Morris Fuller Benton, American Type Founders advertised this typeface family as an efficient tool for saving space and simplifying justification of small headlines. By providing three discreet widths and some alternative letters, a hand-compositor could intermix fonts to achieve more pleasing alignments of text. The Thermo types proved to be commercially unpopular due to the difficult task of composing with them, and were discontinued in 1938. This re-imagining, produced by Steve Matteson, remains faithful to the original but adds new weights and stylistic alternative shapes. The variable font version beautifully scales the widths and weights to provide the flexibility that Benton strived to achieve nearly 100 years prior.