Font information
| designer | Matthew Butterick |
| year | 2011 |
| publisher | MB Type |
| font samples | PDF type specimen PDF sample docs |
| buy now |
One-person license: $120
2-person license: $160 5-person license: $240 10-person license: $360 20-person license: $480
Equity includes 24 fonts:
Read the font license (it's short) or the FAQ
|
Notes
Introducing Equity, a text font I’ve designed, inspired by legal typography and the needs of legal writers.
And yes, you can get it now — use the links above to check out through PayPal (no PayPal account needed, just a credit card). The fonts will be delivered to you by email within minutes.
Also available: Concourse, a companion sans serif for Equity. If you’re interested in getting them together at a discount, head over to that page.
Equity is modeled on one of my favorite fonts of the 1930s, Monotype Ehrhardt. Like Times New Roman, Ehrhardt was made under the supervision of Stanley Morison. Morison’s goal was a handsome face in the Janson style, but with the space-saving features that had made Times New Roman such a hit. So Equity is rooted in the virtues of classic, elegant letterpress typography.
For the legal writer, Equity includes many conveniences that make great typography easy. Equity has been designed to perform well on office printers. Equity comes with regular and bold Caps fonts, which contain real small caps, and which are already letterspaced according to my recommendations. Equity comes with two weight “grades” — an A series and B series — so you can pick the set that looks just right on your printer. You can embed Equity in word-processing documents so your collaborators (up to 20) can view and edit your document with its original formatting. Of course, you can use Equity in PDFs. You can even use Equity on websites and in e-books.
Can you use it for court filings? If your court rules allow it, sure. I’ve already used Equity on filings for California state appellate courts. Because it’s darker than most text fonts, Equity works nicely with double-spaced lines, which are often required by court rules.
Equity has no “demo” version, but I do offer a 30-day return option: if the fonts aren’t your style, you can cancel your license and get a refund.
If you need to expand your license to cover more people in your firm, the upgrade cost is just the difference in price between the licenses.
To paraphrase Lee Iacocca — if you can find a better font for legal work, buy it.
Fast Company: “Simple Genius: Lawyer’s Typeface Makes Legalese Easy To Read”
Typographica: Favorite Typefaces of 2011
Very well done, Mr. Butterick. I am looking forward to trying out this font. I’ve been using Lyon for a month now, and I really like it. I trust Equity will be even better. I really do like the Equity italic. Again, well done sir.
Dear Mr. Butterick. Congratulation to your amazing interpretation and thereby resurrection of one of the most beautiful typefaces in history!
May I ask how the lower case “f” works with succeeding characters with diacritical marks? German only being one example with fä, fü and fö?
Thank you and best luck with this great text typeface!
Thank you for the kind words Günther. I’ve already gotten a couple customer requests for German-language optimizations. So those will be part of the first Equity update. It will be free to all current customers, of course.
Dear Mr. Butterick,
I already have Lyon Text and would like to buy Equity.
In what Equity differs from Lyon Text, the typeface you used in the book?
I’m no typographer, but, at least on my iMac screen (21″) they appear very similar.
Thank you
The most visible differences: a text set in Equity will look rounder, heavier, and more traditional. Lyon is brighter, lighter, and more contemporary. Equity’s caps are taller relative to the lowercase. Equity’s primary influence is letterpress typography; Lyon is “decisively digital,” in the words of Lyon’s designer, Kai Bernau. These and other differences will be more apparent if you print the Equity PDF sample and the Lyon PDF sample.
Matt:
Have you started using Equity instead of Sabon in court filings? Have you started using Equity in letters instead of Stempel Garamond? I have all three fonts and I can’t decide which I like the best for what, although it does seem like I lean towards equity. Out of Sabon, Stempel Garamond, Equity and Lyon — which do you like the most?
I’m hardly an unbiased critic. But I’ve been using Equity in court filings, as well as letters, memos, and other documents.
That said, I haven’t deleted any fonts from my library just because I have Equity. As a writer and lawyer, I create a ton of documents. There’s room in my life for more than one text font — I’m sure there’s room in yours too. As I say in the book: “good typographers don’t rely on rote solutions. One size never fits all.”
What about embedding into a PDF that will be published? The license does not speak to that. For the Lulu perhaps.
Sure. See ¶ 6.1 of the license: “Read-only embedding is allowed (e.g., PDFs).”
Not only am I impressed with the balance of Equity, the way you wrote the license is quite deft. Nice, pithy legal writing.
Question for MB:
Having purchased the Equity fonts and installed them, do I need to manually change the font when I want to use italics or small caps (as if I was changing the font)? Or, does Word/Wordperfect automatically change this when I change to italics/small caps within the word processor?
Your word processor will automatically find the italic, bold, and bold italic styles when you apply the corresponding formatting.
It will not, however, do the same for small caps. The small-cap formatting button in your word processor simply scales down your regular caps, resulting in fake small caps. (As a rule: never click this button. Nothing good comes of it.)
To use the Equity small caps, you need to change the font family from Equity Text to Equity Caps. If you want the bold small caps, change to Equity Caps and apply bold formatting.
So while it’s true you have to “manually” change the font, if you use paragraph and character styles, you can eliminate most of the labor.
And not that you asked, but it’s safe to use the all-caps formatting button with either Equity Text or Equity Caps. This doesn’t mess up the characters like the small-cap button — it simply displays all lowercase characters as uppercase. This is actually the preferred method of putting text in all caps, since it preserves the case of the underlying text. (The other method is to hold down the shift key and type away.)
Mr. Butterick,
I bought Typography For Lawyers and loved it! My only problem is that I am a law student and, as a result, not exactly flush with money. Do you offer educational/student pricing on your font “Equity”? I would love to impress my professors with a font like this but I just can’t afford $120.
I second Sam’s question. I have been wanting to purchase Equity but being a law student means I cannot easily afford the $120 license. Regardless, I am a big fan of TFL and plan to implement its suggestions to improve our L. Rev. if I make it to the editorial board next semester.
Law students, I’m grateful that you’re enthusiastic about typography. If you’re looking for a bargain, Typography for Lawyers on Kindle is $9.99 and will help you make the most of the fonts you’ve already got.
As for Equity, I don’t offer student discounts, for various logistical & policy reasons that you’ll have to trust are based on practical considerations, not coldheartedness toward our leaders of the future.
This is a beautiful font. One of the features I especially appreciate is that it prints darker than other fonts I’ve tried (TNR, Sabon, Stempel Garamond, etc.).
It is also easy on the eyes to read and has the balance of ease-of-reading and being a workhorse. I’ve been trying for a few months to settle on a font for my firm, and I’ve finally found it. Thanks, Matthew.
Mr. Butterick,
If I’m drafting a letter using Equity at 11.5 point, what space between lines do you recommend? This is on Microsoft Word for Mac.
I can’t seem to find the sweet spot.
At 11.5 point, I’d give it 14–16 points of line space.
I just wanted to share the very positive experience I had with Mr. Butterick with anyone thinking about trying out the Equity font.
I purchased the font and liked it quite a bit. However, the IT folks at my firm (150+ lawyers) freaked out when I asked how to install it on my system. They would not let me install a non-system font. Nor would they allow me to embed it in documents for “security” reasons. (I think this is all bogus, and it’s just IT people being IT people–which is why I use a MAC in real life.)
Forced to capitulate to the IT gods, I emailed Mr. Butterick to ask for a refund. He got back to me immediately with a humorous and understanding email and then refunded my purchase shortly thereafter. Less than two business hours after my email, the refund was back in my account.
I wish I could use the Equity font in all my work, but for now that is not possible. Luckily, Mr. Butterick’s customer service is as good as his advice on typography, and I’m none the worse for the experience.
can this font be used for the text on firm’s website?
Yes, with limitations on number of domains and page views per month. See ¶ 14.5 of the license.
Is this font appropriate for letterhead? If so, what suggestions would be Equity specific? Or should I just refer to the chapter in your book?
The PDF Sample Docs include an example of how Equity can be used in letterhead.
Wow, Equity is impressive. Relatively flexible licence, and an extremely competitive price for a typeface with so many weights and grades!
Congratulations on an excellent book and your recent Golden Pen 2012 award — richly deserved.
A question: are “old style” numbers included in the Equity font?
Having bought the book and lambasted almost every firm of legal advisors that I retain to also buy and then follow it, I am after the font. The PDF samples only seem to show the “lining” style numbers.
Equity has what are sometimes called “3/4 figures,” which are lining figures that don’t come up to full cap height. The problem with oldstyle figures is that they don’t work well alongside capital letters, which is a common requirement in legal documents (especially citations). Because many word processors don’t support alternate OpenType figure sets, the default figures had to work well in the widest context. But OpenType figure support is becoming more widespread: both Word 2010 for Windows and Word 2011 for Mac include it. So I plan to add oldstyle figures to Equity as OpenType alternates in the near future.
What is the size of this font compared to Times New Roman? One issue I’m having is that my federal district has fairly specific and well-enforced font size rules for pleadings (as well as page limits rather than word count limits), and Century Schoolbook being significantly larger than Times New Roman has caused me an unending number of headaches.
Equity is designed to be as space-efficient as Times New Roman, and thus makes an excellent substitute. You can see a side-by-side comparison in the Equity type specimen.
Regarding language optimization. I’m from Sweden and use special characters like åäö. Do you recommend me to use Equity in it’s current form?
Those characters are included in Equity, if that’s what you’re asking. While I foresee no problems with setting Swedish text with Equity, I haven’t actually done it.
I’m a barrister from Poland and I use special characters like ą,ę,ć,ó,ż,ź,ń,ś,ó,ł. Are those characters included in Equity and is it possible to set polish text with Equity?Shall I use Equity in it’s current form?
Equity doesn’t cover the Central European glyph set, so you cannot use it to set Polish. Sorry. Hope to add those glyphs eventually.
Equity is elegant and I am producing my first document on it now.
My question is, which is better for screen reading in a pdf, “A” or “B”?
I enjoy the book greatly, but I can’t find any of the recommended fonts families for under $200, as you say is possible in the book (p. 113). For example, Miller, an attractive font mentioned in the book, is $450 for one user from one site I visited (this makes your fonts a bargain of course). Where to shop? Thanks.
Ken O’Brien