Altenglisch

Name: Altenglisch
Author: Peter Wiegel

Altenglisch brings classic elegance to your typography with refined serifs that guide the eye through extended reading.

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Serifby Peter Wiegel67% Accessible

Characters456

Glyphs547

Typography Tools

Best Ways to Use Altenglisch

Best Font Pairings for Altenglisch

TypeSmith curates 4 expert font pairings for Altenglisch, including combinations with Seiden Sans, Accelerator and Dance Partner.

Each pairing includes accessibility ratings, expert reasoning, and usage recommendations for web and print design.

Explore 4 Pairings for Altenglisch

Test Altenglisch Font Pairings Live

TypeSmith's interactive testing tool lets you preview Altenglisch with any font combination in real-time, optimized for serif characteristics.

Adjust font sizes, weights, and see live typography specimens including editorial layouts, code editors, and UI components.

Test Altenglisch Pairings Live

In Context

Altenglisch Specimen Gallery

EditorialUI ComponentsPosterWordmark

Altenglisch Editorial Specimen

Altenglisch in Editorial Context

Altenglisch is a serif typeface by Peter Wiegel suited for editorial layouts and long-form reading.

Peter Wiegel

Typeface Designer • Serif

Altenglisch demonstrates editorial readability through balanced proportions and consistent stroke weight. As a serif typeface, it delivers clear letterforms that sustain reader engagement across extended passages of text.

The weight range of Altenglisch supports typographic hierarchy within editorial layouts. Headline weights establish visual anchors while lighter weights maintain comfortable reading rhythm in body text columns.

Designed by Peter Wiegel, Altenglisch balances personality with function — providing enough character to establish visual identity without compromising the legibility that editorial contexts demand.

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Altenglisch Typography

A serif typeface for UI components.

Active2 weights available

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Altenglisch Specimen

Altenglisch

Altenglisch is a serif typeface by Peter Wiegel built for display contexts.

2 WeightsSerif Typeface

Available on TypeSmith

Wordmark Explorations

Altenglisch

ALTENGLISCH

ALTENGLISCHTYPE

Tagline Pairings

Altenglisch— serif typeface

AltenglischBy Peter Wiegel

AltenglischTYPE

Editorial

Magazine-style headline and body text layout

Character Set

Altenglisch Glyphs & Characters

Size48

Showing 62 of 187 charactersDouble-click to copy • Click for details

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789

Heading Examples

Body Text Table

Body Copy

Reading Text in Altenglisch

TypeSmith provides optimized body text specifications for Altenglisch, including recommended sizes, line heights, and letter spacing for long-form content. These settings ensure maximum readability across devices and screen sizes.

Altenglisch demonstrates exceptional body text performance with balanced proportions and consistent stroke widths that enhance readability across paragraph lengths.

When setting Altenglisch for body copy, TypeSmith recommends these optimized specifications. The carefully tuned metrics ensure comfortable reading at extended lengths while maintaining the typeface's distinctive character.

Altenglisch small text sizes retain legibility through well-defined letterforms. Caption and footnote applications benefit from the font's clear x-height and open counters.

Element	Weight	Size	Line Height	Tracking	Preview
Body Text	Regular	16px	24px	0.5px	Altenglisch delivers excellent readability for body copy
Italicized	Regular Italic	16px	24px	0.5px	Altenglisch italic provides elegant emphasis
Bold	Bold	16px	24px	0.5px	Altenglisch bold creates strong visual hierarchy
Small Caps	Regular	16px	24px	0.5px	Altenglisch typography specimen
Secondary Text	Medium	14px	20px	0.5px	Altenglisch typography specimen

.your-class { font-family: 'Altenglisch'; }

Quick Start

How to Embed Altenglisch in Your Project

HTML Link Tag

Add to your <head> section

<link href="https://fonts.bunny.net/css?family=Altenglisch:400,700&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">

CSS @import

Add at top of your stylesheet

@import url('https://fonts.bunny.net/css?family=Altenglisch:400,700&display=swap');

CSS @font-face

Self-host the font files

@font-face {
  font-family: 'Altenglisch';
  src: url('https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Altenglisch:wght@400;700&display=swap');
  font-display: swap;
}

Implementation

Using Altenglisch in CSS

Standard CSS

css

Apply directly to any CSS class or selector.

 1.my-text {
 2  font-family: 'Altenglisch', sans-serif;
 3  font-weight: 400;
 4}

SCSS Variable

scss

Define once, use throughout your stylesheet.

 1$font-primary: 'Altenglisch', sans-serif;
 2
 3.my-text {
 4  font-family: $font-primary;
 5}

Tailwind CSS

config

Configure once, apply with utility classes.

 1// tailwind.config.js
 2module.exports = {
 3  theme: {
 4    extend: {
 5      fontFamily: {
 6        'altenglisch': ['Altenglisch', 'sans-serif'],
 7      },
 8    },
 9  },
10}
11
12// Usage in HTML
13<p class="font-altenglisch">Your text here</p>

About

Altenglisch: History & Characteristics

Peter Wiegel

Serif

Open Source

Altenglisch serif typeface delivers blackletter antiqua forms through old-style construction suited to period and decorative display applications. Peter Wiegel's design creates authentic character for German heritage branding, cultural contexts, and historical publications. The blackletter influences add medieval resonance while old-style proportions maintain readability. Altenglisch's vintage aesthetic appeals to breweries, heritage brands, and cultural institutions. Display sizes showcase the typeface's blackletter character. Pair with a readable text face for body copy.

Altenglisch was crafted by Peter Wiegel. The typeface brings careful attention to typographic detail, visible in its letterform construction and optical balance.

As a Serif typeface in the Vox-ATypI Classicals classification, Altenglisch features bracketed or hairline serifs terminating each stroke and modulated stroke contrast from axis of stress. These optical characteristics make it well-suited for long-form editorial and book typography.

Altenglisch is available in a single weight, offering focused typographic consistency for both digital and print applications, with 4 curated font pairings available. Standard Latin character coverage serves the majority of Western typographic workflows.

Altenglisch

Typography Judgment

Expert Analysis of Altenglisch

TypeSmith evaluates every font across classification, accessibility, and design heritage. This analysis helps designers understand Altenglisch's strengths and ideal use cases before committing to a typography decision.

Classification

Serif analysis. Typographic analysis places Altenglisch within the Classicals (Humanist, Garalde, Transitional) and Moderns (Didone) tradition, characterized by Bracketed or hairline serifs terminating each stroke and Modulated stroke contrast from axis of stress. Serif letterforms trace to Roman square capitals carved into stone. Key technical strength: extensive weight and optical-size ranges in superfamilies.

Accessibility

Readability assessment (grade: 67). Altenglisch handles most reading scenarios adequately, with best results at sizes above 14 px on screen.

Design Heritage

Designed by Peter Wiegel. The designer's attention to character shaping and weight distribution produces a Serif with a single focused weight suited to both digital and print workflows.

Overview

About Altenglisch

Altenglisch embodies the Classicals typeface, anchored in the tradition where serif letterforms trace to Roman square capitals carved into stone. Its distinctive bracketed or hairline serifs terminating each stroke and modulated stroke contrast from axis of stress make it well-suited for long-form editorial and book typography. TypeSmith features Altenglisch in a single weight variant and 4 curated font pairings.

Font Pairings Available

4 curated pairings for Altenglisch

View Pairings

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Alternatives to Altenglisch

View all fonts

TypeSmith identifies 5 fonts with similar visual characteristics to Altenglisch based on classification, x-height ratio, and stroke weight. These alternatives maintain the same typographic personality while offering different weight options and language support.

Inclusive Design

Accessibility & Usability

Accessibility Score

Good Accessibility

Altenglisch: Accessibility Considerations

Altenglisch falls in the moderate accessibility tier, working best at medium-to-large sizes where its letterforms remain clearly differentiated. High-contrast Didones can cause halation for readers with astigmatism. Prefer Garalde or Transitional cuts at text sizes for inclusive readability.

Legibility Analysis: Altenglisch

Altenglisch draws legibility from its bracketed or hairline serifs terminating each stroke and modulated stroke contrast from axis of stress. These characteristics help readers distinguish similar glyphs such as I, l, and 1 at a range of sizes.

Altenglisch in Context: Readability

Serifs guide horizontal eye movement along the baseline, making text sizes above 9 pt highly readable in print. On screen, hinting quality determines legibility below 14 px. Set body text at 16 px or larger on screen, with line heights between 1.4 and 1.6 for sustained reading comfort.

Altenglisch for Long-Form Content

Altenglisch provides a focused weight range that maintains consistent typographic color across paragraphs. High stroke contrast can cause halation for some readers, so pair with ample line spacing on bright backgrounds.

Altenglisch Accessibility Recommendations

Maintain a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for body text and 3:1 for large text when setting Altenglisch. Use font sizes of at least 16 px for paragraph copy and line spacing of 1.5 or greater. Test Altenglisch at 200% browser zoom to confirm line breaks and layout integrity remain intact.

Working with Altenglisch: Best Practices

Pair with geometric or grotesque sans-serifs for contrast. Avoid pairing two serifs from the same Vox sub-class to prevent visual redundancy. Curated pairings are available to guide complementary typeface selection for Altenglisch. Establish hierarchy through size, spacing, and color rather than multiplying font families. Serve Altenglisch in WOFF2 format for optimal load performance and broad browser compatibility.

Get the Font

Download Weights & Variants

Available Weights

400

Regular

Local

400

Regular Italic

Local

700

Bold

Local

700

Bold Italic

Local

Weight Reference

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Internationalization

Altenglisch Multilingual Support

Extended Latin Coverage

Supports 100+ languages with Latin script

Western European

English
French
German
Spanish
Italian
Portuguese
Dutch

Nordic

Swedish
Norwegian
Danish
Finnish
Icelandic

Central European

Polish
Czech
Hungarian
Romanian
Slovak

Baltic

Lithuanian
Latvian
Estonian

This font encodes 327 glyphs covering Latin. Latin coverage extends past the basic ASCII set into Latin Extended, so Central and Eastern European languages set correctly. Text outside these ranges falls back to another face in the stack.

Legal

Usage Rights for Altenglisch

SIL Open Font License (OFL) 1.1

Free for personal and commercial use

View License

What you can do

Personal projects
Commercial projects
Web embedding
App embedding
Modification
Redistribution

Restrictions

Selling as standalone

Modified versions must use a different name and be distributed under the same OFL license.

Altenglisch is available under the SIL Open Font License (OFL), Version 1.1. This license is a free, libre, and open source license specifically designed for fonts and related software. The OFL allows the fonts to be used, studied, modified, and redistributed freely as long as they are not sold by themselves. This makes Altenglisch ideal for web projects, applications, documents, and print materials of any kind.

1// tailwind.config.js 2module.exports = { 3 theme: { 4 extend: { 5 fontFamily: { 6 'altenglisch': ['Altenglisch', 'sans-serif'], 7 }, 8 }, 9 }, 10} 11 12// Usage in HTML 13<p class="font-altenglisch">Your text here</p>

Altenglisch

Best Ways to Use Altenglisch

Best Font Pairings for Altenglisch

Test Altenglisch Font Pairings Live

In Context

Altenglisch Typography

Altenglisch

Character Set

Type Scale

Reading Text in Altenglisch

Quick Start

HTML Link Tag

CSS @import

CSS @font-face

Implementation

Standard CSS

SCSS Variable

Tailwind CSS

About

Typography Judgment

Classification

Accessibility

Design Heritage

Overview

Categories

Explore More

Inclusive Design

Altenglisch: Accessibility Considerations

Legibility Analysis: Altenglisch

Altenglisch in Context: Readability

Altenglisch for Long-Form Content

Altenglisch Accessibility Recommendations

Working with Altenglisch: Best Practices

Get the Font

Available Weights

Weight Reference

Internationalization

Western European

Nordic

Central European

Baltic

Legal

What you can do

Restrictions

Altenglisch

Best Ways to Use Altenglisch

Best Font Pairings for Altenglisch

Test Altenglisch Font Pairings Live

In Context

Altenglisch Typography

Altenglisch

Character Set

Type Scale

Reading Text in Altenglisch

Quick Start

HTML Link Tag

CSS @import

CSS @font-face

Implementation

Standard CSS

SCSS Variable

Tailwind CSS

About

Typography Judgment

Classification

Accessibility

Design Heritage

Overview

Categories

Explore More

Inclusive Design

Altenglisch: Accessibility Considerations

Legibility Analysis: Altenglisch

Altenglisch in Context: Readability

Altenglisch for Long-Form Content

Altenglisch Accessibility Recommendations

Working with Altenglisch: Best Practices

Get the Font

Available Weights

Weight Reference