100 px

Ambiguity™

  • General info
  • Available languages
  • OpenType
  • Background story
  • Related tags
Ambiguity™ font family

Designed by  Charles Nix in 2019

Up to 1 Family / 1 Value Packs
Supports at least 33 languages (Pro / OT CFF)

Available licenses for all styles:

Supports up to 74 languages.

Please select a format to view the available languages:

Show available fonts

Supports up to 16 OpenType features.

Please select a format to view the available OpenType features:

Show available fonts

Ambiguity is a type family with five distinct personalities or ‘states’, created as a tool for coaxing designers and brands out of their comfort zone. It embraces both tradition and radicality, as well as generosity and thrift, encouraging us to question our beliefs about the intersection of style and meaning.

The family is designed by Charles Nix, who describes Ambiguity as “as much thought experiment as typeface.”
Its five states—Tradition, Radical, Thrift, Generous and Normate—each express or subvert different aspects of typographic tradition.

Tradition is conservative, relying on historical letter shapes. Radical rejects inherited ideas of proportion, making typically slender letterforms wide, and wide letterforms slender. “It’s contrarian,” says Nix. Thrift cherry picks the condensed shapes from Tradition and Radical, while Generous does the same for wide forms. Normate sits at the center, a synthetic blend of all of the others

“Tradition is very comforting,” says Nix. “It’s the mask of conservatism. It’s calming because it delivers the proportions we expect. With Thrift more fits into a smaller space, so it’s great where words want to get large, like gigantic headlines, or text needs to cram in, like small screen type. You get a sense of carefree and luxury from the Generous cut. One would expect the Radical to be used in a sort of Dadaist way, but in a classic context it provides an enjoyable jolt.”

Ambiguity is a litmus test. Designers could spend hours trying on typefaces that offer just one of these voices. Ambiguity provides five different personalities—ideas—beliefs—each of which also work seamlessly together.

“It’s a palettea, like idea cards,” he says. “It’s a way of making yourself see differently. My hope is that traditionalists will try on radical clothes and vice versa. It’s a way of exploring outside your comfort zone, breaking out of the doldrums, by stepping through a variety of voices.”

Show more
Hide

1 Family

1 Value Packs %

1 Valuepack available in:
Show all

Ambiguity™ Complete Family Pack

 (70 Typefaces) -  2 variants
Ambiguity Complete Family Pack
Ambiguity Complete Family Pack
Direct links to your search results :
From US$ 199.99
Add to cart Add to cart

Save on additional license types when you buy 2 or more

US$ 399.98


US$ 359.98

US$ 199.99


US$ 199.99

US$ 199.99


More options
Add to cart

SkyFonts loading...

Ambiguity is a trademark of Monotype Imaging Inc. and may be registered in certain jurisdictions.