Anziano follows the direction staked out with Delicato. When creating traditional typefaces, it is inevitable to be influenced by earlier designs. Anziano does show touches of another classic typeface – Weiss (by Emil Rudolf Weiss, 1926). Weiss is often misjudged and overlooked. Perhaps the most well known Swedish typeface – Berling (by Karl-Erik Forsberg, 1914–1995) is actually based largely on Weiss. MRF have appreciated the design of Weiss uprights for a long time. When Stefan Hattenbach bought the first Swedish edition of The Lord of the Rings (1959–61), in 2004, he was amazed by the excellent flow of the text presented on each page. Despite the very original character that Weiss has, it was a pleasure to read a book set in such a typeface.
MRF realized that several major foundries had already done interpretations of Weiss, more or less true to the original. MRF didn’t want to add on to that list! Instead Stefan tried to find his own path. Anziano consists of three core styles, Regular, Italic and Bold; each with small caps, ornaments, stylistic ligatures, and extended Latin accents. Lining, tabular, oldstyle and smallcap numerals help round out Anziano’s typographic range and function.