Enamela

Enamela (rhymes with Pamela) is a monoline square sans that is available in normal width and condensed versions. Although rooted in the early years of sans serif type, the Enamela fonts have a timeless quality that is practical and unpretentious.

The letterforms derive from vitreous enamel signage dating from the Victorian era and widely used in Britain for street nameplates, Post Office signs, the plates on James Ludlow wall postboxes, railway signs and direction signs, as well as for circular Automobile Association wayfinding plaques throughout the first half of the twentieth century. The quirky terminals stemming from the compression of geometric type invite comparison with the Charles Wright fonts used for UK vehicle registration plates.

The Enamela and Enamela Condensed families are both available in three weights – regular, medium and bold – each supplied with a free italic (optically corrected oblique).

A commonly used alternative M with a vertex that touches the baseline is provided at the Alt-M (µ) keystroke on a Mac, or Alt-0181 on Windows. A commonly used G with a plain vertical throat, no crosspiece, is assigned Unicode FF27 (full width capital G).

Read the full story behind the Enamela fonts in the Kernel.