The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
The Seasons vs Arsenica
Two commercial serifs released in 2021 that both trade on high contrast and period charm. The Seasons, by Elena Genova for My Creative Land, is a compact fashion-magazine serif with hand-written calligraphic italics, while Arsenica, by Francesco Canovaro's team at Zetafonts, is a 41-weight superfamily that stretches from Italian poster display down to optically-sized body text.
The Seasons is a commercial font, so it is shown here in Cormorant, its closest free alternative. All free alternatives to The Seasons → Arsenica is a commercial font, so it is shown here in Fraunces, its closest free alternative. All free alternatives to Arsenica →
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
- The Seasons is a single high-contrast design in ten styles, Thin to Extra Bold, with softly sheared terminals and sharply dramatic curves throughout.
- Arsenica is built as four sub-families: the low-contrast, wide Old Style Antiqua, a high-contrast Display range, a more contemporary Alternate, and a Text cut with an optical-size axis for long copy.
- The Seasons' italics are true calligraphic companions based on humanistic scripts and written with a Pilot Parallel Pen, so they read as script rather than slanted roman.
- Arsenica draws on early-20th-century Italian poster art, and ships two variable fonts covering weight and optical size, which The Seasons does not offer.
- Both are paid: The Seasons runs from about $30 a style or $198 for the family (also on Adobe Fonts), while Arsenica's full family lists at $175 with a free personal-use trial of 14 weights.
The Seasons
Reach for The Seasons when you want one chic editorial voice for a logo, magazine masthead, packaging, or invitation, especially if its calligraphic italics are the point.
Arsenica
Reach for Arsenica when a project needs one family to carry everything from Art Nouveau-flavoured poster headlines to readable body text, and you can use its variable fonts.