The Difference Between a Slant Axis and an Italic

A true italic is usually a distinct drawing — different letter skeletons, not just a tilted upright. A slant axis, by contrast, shears the existing outlines continuously. They are not interchangeable, and we get asked to justify the choice on nearly every release.

For display faces like Solvent, we’ve chosen the continuous slant deliberately: it lets a single file move smoothly through a whole range of obliques rather than jumping between two fixed states, which matters more for animated and interactive type than it does for a printed page.