Developed by Hans van Maanen and Stefan Schlesinger, Basilio is a western and wood type typeface published by Canada Type.

In the late 1930s, old Egyptiennes (or Italiennes) returned to the collective awareness of European printers and type homes-- possibly because political news were front a centre, especially in France where Le Figaro newspaper was seeing record circulation numbers. In 1939 both Monotype and Lettergieterij Amsterdam considered the very same idea: Make a brand-new typeface similar to the reverse tension slab shapes that make up the titles of papers like Le Figaro and Le Frondeur.

Both foundries meant to call their brand-new type Figaro. Monotype completed theirs initially, so they ended up with the name, and their type was already released when Stefan Schlesinger completed his take for the Amsterdam foundry. Schlesinger's type was relabelled Hidalgo (Spanish for a lower nobleman, 'son of something') and published in 1940 as 'a really happy variation on an old theme'. Although it wasn't an industrial success at the time, it was well gotten and thought about subtler and more refined than the similar types readily available, Figaro and Playbill. In the Second World War, the Germans prohibited making use of the type, and Hidalgo never really recovered.

Upon more detailed examination, Schlesinger's deal with Hidalgo was far more Euro-sophisticated and ahead of its time than the too-wooden cut of Figaro and the thick tightness of Playbill. It has a modern-day high contrast, a squarer skeleton, shape cuts that work likewise outside and within, and airy and minimal options to the more complicated shapes like G, K, M, N, Q and W. It is likewise much more familiar with, and more accommodating to, the picket-fence effect the thick top pieces develop in setting.

Basilio (called after the signing instructor in Mozart's Figaro) is the digital revival and major expansion of Hidalgo. With almost 600 glyphs, it boasts Pan-European language assistance (most Latin languages, in addition to Cyrillic and Greek), and a few OpenType tricks that gel it all together to make an extremely beneficial design tool.

Stefan Schlesigner was born in Vienna in 1896. He relocated to the Netherlands in 1925, where he worked for Van Houten's chocolate, Metz outlet store, printing company Trio and numerous other customers. He died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz in 1944. Digital revivals and growths of two of his other styles, Minuet and Serena, have likewise been released by Canada Type.

Font Family: Basilio Regular