Retail Fonts

FinlandiaScript

ALS FinlandiaScript a typeface in reminiscence of Jean Sibelius

ALS FinlandiaScript is a typeface in reminiscence of composer Jean Sibelius.

Some 40 km north of Helsinki, surrounded by meadows and a serene Finnish lake, lies Ainola, the former home and now museum of composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957). It’s a wonderful place for small excursions from the capital city, especially in spring, when the days are getting longer, with the snow melting in the sun and the ice cracking on the lake.

FinlandiaScript superimposed on sheet music by Sibelius
FinlandiaScript superimposed on Sibelius’ sheet music for “Finlandia”.

Sibelius often professed his love for the landscape around Ainola and found constant inspiration in its moods, sounds and scents. For many of us, Sibelius and his music, most notably his famous symphonic poem Finlandia, are a symbol of Finland. The typeface FinlandiaScript owes its influence to both Sibelius’ manuscripts and the meadows, forests and lakes around Ainola. The shape of letters, their poise and the rhythm they create resemble Sibelius’ handwriting without copying it. Gently flowing FinlandiaScript lines of text are very legible and have strong individuality.

“Juhannus” (Midsummer) in FinlandiaScript Bold
“Vadelma” (Raspberry) in FinlandiaScript Bold

Styles

The font family comes in three styles: FinlandiaScript, FinlandiaScript Bold and FinlandiaScript Frost. Together they are perfect for magazines, websites and brands aiming to create a personal and sincere image. While the fine details of FinlandiaScript Frost are best suited for display sizes, FinlandiaScript and FinlandiaScript Bold work well in both headlines and running text sizes with hundreds of ligatures giving them a rhythmically balanced appearance.

All three styles of ALS FinlandiaScript
All three styles of ALS FinlandiaScript – Regular, Bold and Frost.
Sample of FinlandiaScript Regular and Bold

Multilingual Script

The FinlandiaScript family contains Western, Central European and Extended Cyrillic character sets and supports almost 100 languages. It is best suited for OpenType savvy programs with the “standard ligatures” and “contextual alternates” features turned on.

Basic Latin character set
Basic Latin characters and numerals of FinlandiaScript
Basic Cyrillic character set
Some Cyrillic characters
Sample of FinlandiaScript Regular in Russian
Sample of FinlandiaScript Regular in cyrillic

Open Type Features

It’s the OpenType features that breathe life into FinlandiaScript. Below are some examples of how you can make use of them.

FinlandiaScript: ligatures
Ligatures are usually active by default. If not, you can activate them in the OpenType menu of your program.
Some alternate characters of FinlandiaScript
Different shapes of letters can be made visible by switching on or off ligatures and contextual alternates.
FinlandiaScript: underlining with the underscore
Multiple underscore lead to a natural looking underline.
FinlandiaScript: strikethrough with the en dash
Hitting the en dash two or more times gives you a nice looking strikethrough.
FinlandiaScript: crossout with the em dash
Create a lovely crossout by hitting two or more times the em dash.
FinlandiaScript: crosshatching with the number sign
Neutralize your words with a series of number signs.

Making of

Original xxx
From Sibelius’ signature to FinlandiaScript, below J in Regular, Bold and Frost
Capital letter J in three styles
ALS FinlandiaScript is a part of the Art. Lebedev Studio font library.
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