Lydian is a calligraphic

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanism" ha ...

sans-serif In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif (), gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than ...

typeface A typeface (or font family) is a design of Letter (alphabet), letters, Numerical digit, numbers and other symbols, to be used in printing or for electronic display. Most typefaces include variations in size (e.g., 24 point), weight (e.g., light, ...

Warren Chappell Warren Chappell (1904 – March 26, 1991) was an American illustrator, book and type designer, and writer. Early life Warren Chappell was born in 1904 in Richmond, Virginia. He drew and modeled with clay at a young age. According to his obituary ...

for

American Type Founders American Type Founders (ATF) Co. was a business trust created in 1892 by the merger of 23 type foundries, representing about 85 percent of all type manufactured in the United States at the time. De Vinne, Theodore Low, ''The Practice of Typogr ...

in 1938. It is available in bold, italic, and condensed, as well as in a Cursive variant. The original foundry font was commissioned and cast by

and included a

stylistic alternate In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts "Roman" (or "regular" ...

, a capital ‹A› with a cross bar. It was named after the designer's wife Lydia. It is famously used as the font for the end credits on the TV show ''

Friends ''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane (producer), David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting List of Friends episodes, ten seasons. With an ensemble cast ...

''. The various members of the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

were introduced over the course of eight years: * ''Lydian Italic'' (1938) * ''Lydian Bold Italic'' (1938) * ''Lydian Cursive'' (1940) * ''Lydian Condensed Italic'' (1946)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lydian (Typeface) Sans-serif typefaces American Type Founders typefaces Display typefaces Typefaces and fonts introduced in 1938