KernhausSchriftgießerei

Berlin · est. 2022 — an independent foundry. Two families a year, drawn slowly, proofed on paper.

100.0
340

Werksatz — variable

Move across the page: x plays width, y plays weight. Click the word to change the record. Press G for the baseline grid.

Ausgabe 09Werksatzgrotesk · 2 axes · 18 instances2026
Ausgabe 08Brotschriftantiqua · 4 axes · 4 opticals2025
Ausgabe 07Zeilen Monothe mono these readouts are set in2025
Probe 01

Werksatz

A working grotesk with a wide chest. Width 62–125, weight 100–900 — one file, eighteen named instances, no apologies at either end.

96Setzkasten
72Druckerschwärze
56Bleisatz braucht Geduld
40Every letter earns its counter
28Werksatz holds a headline and disappears in a caption
20Drawn upright, spaced for signage, tested at sizes nobody brags about
14At fourteen pixels the ink traps open and the grotesk keeps its temper — this is the size we proof first, not last

Kernprobe — pairs nudge into place as you arrive

AV+240
Ta+240
Wo+240
L’+240
r,+240

Values in units per em. Werksatz ships with 1,142 kerning pairs; these five are the ones apprentices get wrong.

Zeichenvorrat — hover a cell, the glyph takes on weight

Probe 02

Brotschrift

Bread type — the kind you read without noticing, until you set it at 144 point and it bites. Four optical sizes on four axes, including one we probably shouldn’t have shipped.

Quellwasser & Quark

Optical size. At 9 the strokes thicken and the spacing opens; at 144 the hairlines go razor.

Softness. Rounds the terminals from cut to poured, like letterpress gain on damp paper.

WONK off

The axis we shouldn’t have shipped. Slants the odd stem, tilts an e — the drunk uncle of the family.

Anatomie — one lowercase g, named for the record

A two-storey g is the foundry’s handshake: if the loop closes with grace, the rest of the family usually behaves.

Probedruck Nr. 3

The proof sheet

Every family is printed, read aloud, and corrected in red before release. This proof still has its mistakes in — watch the corrections land.

Every Kernhaus family begins on paper. We set a page of it, print it, and read it out loud in the workshop — badly, on purpose — because an ear catches what what the eye forgives. A grotesk that survives being mumbled at 8 point has earned its Waterline. Somewhere in this paragraph a letter arrived from the wrong case drawer; the old setters called it a Zwiebelfisch, and it is still the fastest way to make a proofreader reach for the red pencil.

Tarif

Licensing

One-time prices in euros. Every licence includes all weights, all widths, the variable file, and updates for life. Sized by how many people work where you work.

Licence 1–4 people 5–20 21–100 100+
Desktop OTF + variable€90€220€540€1,200
Web self-hosted, unmetered€90€220€540€1,200
App per title€180€440€1,080€2,400
Broadcast & logo ask us first€360€880€2,160€4,800
License Werksatz — from €90

Students and one-person zines: write to us, the first licence is a handshake, not an invoice.