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About
Description

Modula was the first high resolution headline typeface that Licko designed using the Macintosh. It was created during a time when much of the industry’s digital font creation efforts were concentrated in the mechanical digitization of traditional photo or lead typeface designs. When digitizing existing analog fonts, the jagged lines of the resulting bitmap (or screen) fonts constructed hideous emulations of the original. Licko felt that through such imitations one failed to utilize the capabilities of the digital process. While she respected the nuances of our traditional typefaces and their evolution in conjunction with reading habits, she also felt that the forms of computer fonts must result as an integral part of the digital process, not in spite of it. Modula is firmly grounded in this idea.

In 1985, the computer was very crude as far as being able to produce subtle curves, but it was outstanding at producing perfect geometric elements. As a starting point for Modula, Licko used the proportions of her earlier Emperor Fifteen bitmap design and applied the precision of the computer’s geometric rendering abilities, as well as other technological quirks she stumbled upon while experimenting. For instance, she discovered that as a shortcut to increasing the resolution of bitmap typefaces from screen to printer some programs offered a “smooth” routine that polished stairstep pixels into smooth diagonal and circular segments. This smooth printing option provided by the early Macintosh inspired much of Modula’s basic look and feel.

Modula is available in both serif and sans serif versions, each with three weights.

Type Designer

Emigre

Emigre Fonts is a digital type foundry and publisher of type specimens and artist books based in Berkeley, California. From 1984 until 2005 Emigre published the legendary Emigre magazine, a quarterly publication devoted to visual communication. The Emigre font library features more than 600 original typefaces, including Mrs Eaves, Brothers, Matrix and Filosofia.

Licensing Information
The full Adobe Fonts library is cleared for both personal and commercial use.

As with everything from Adobe Fonts, you can use these fonts for:

Design Projects

Create images or vector artwork, including logos

Website Publishing

Create a Web Project to add any font from our service to your website

PDFs

Embed fonts in PDFs for viewing and printing

Video and Broadcast

Use fonts to create in-house or commercial video content

And more…

Visit the Adobe Fonts Licensing  FAQ for full details

Visit Emigre to purchase additional licensing and services, including:
Mobile Apps: Embed fonts in your app UI
Self Hosting: Host web font files on your own server
Custom Services: Request modifications or bespoke fonts directly from the foundry
Volume licensing: Use the fonts across your whole organization
Select font style

How to Use

You may encounter slight variations in the name of this font, depending on where you use it. Here’s what to look for.

Desktop

In application font menus, this font will display:

{{familyCtrl.selectedVariation.preferred_family_name}} {{familyCtrl.selectedVariation.preferred_subfamily_name}}

Web

To use this font on your website, use the following CSS:


font-family: {{familyCtrl.selectedVariation.family.css_font_stack.replace('"', '').replace('",', ', ')}};
font-style: italicnormal;
font-weight: {{familyCtrl.selectedVariation.font.web.weight}};
        

Glyph Support & Stylistic Filters

Fonts in the Adobe Fonts library include support for many different languages, OpenType features, and typographic styles.