Work on the sans serif started in the early 2010s as an investigation into the possibility of making a design look both technical and human. The idea was to appeal to a no-nonsense, even tech-savvy crowd while keeping sight of the connection type needs to make with readers on a personal level. After lying dormant for roughly a decade, the design was resuscitated. The typeface was redrawn while taking great care to preserve its signature hybrid human/ technical structure, and its character set was expanded.

Enra is a child of the nineties. It follows the playbook of many popular, long- lasting typefaces from that decade that have ultimately become an enduring presence in our visual landscape. At its core, the design has a dependable, timeless look that defies the fleeting nature of fashion and trends. Utilitarian and versatile, each of the three Enra siblings is a design in its own right. Together, they form a power trio. Because they share a common skeleton and their weights are harmonized, Enra Sans, Enra Slab, and Enra Semi work together seamlessly..

The design is resolutely tooled toward optimal legibility. A large x-height, generous counters, and open apertures guarantee that the typeface retains its excellent readability even at the smallest sizes. With narrow proportions and relatively short ascenders and descenders, Enra makes the most of the available space. It does so without feeling cramped in the least. And it’s not just for print; its squarish structure sits comfortably on the screen pixels of computer monitors and mobile devices. Each of the three variants has its own identity. Enra Sans is the core expression of the design and the type system’s foundation. Enra Slab’s sturdy serifs provide the letterforms with additional stability. And Enra Semi is the maverick of the three. The presence of only the top serifs gives the typeface a dynamic feel, making it seem like the letters glide swiftly along the lines.

To avoid confusion between certain letters and to increase their legibility, the capitals I and J and lowercase i, j, and l sport a top serif in Enra Sans. These can be removed by activating the respective Stylistic Sets for a more traditional look. Because of the nature of their design, Enra Slab and Enra Semi have slightly different Stylistic Sets. Enra Slab offers a finial lowercase l with an outgoing curl instead of the bottom serifs. Enra Semi has an alternate capital I with full serifs to distinguish it from the lowercase l. The top serifs on the lowercase i and j can be removed too, and an outgoing curl can be added to the bottom of the lowercase l. All three variants also have a Stylistic Set that provides a simplified (single-storey) lowercase g. Nice extras are two Stylistic Sets allowing you to type numbers in outlined or black circles or cartridges simply by wrapping them with regular or square brackets, respectively.

All Enra variants have the same extensive character set covering all languages written with the Latin alphabet, including Vietnamese. Furthermore, the fonts include small caps, different sets of numerals, true fractions, full complements of superscript and subscript lowercase letters, and icons and symbols like arrows, pointing hands, basic shapes, playing card suits, and checkboxes.