Acclaimed type designer Nick Cooke (Olicana, Chevin, Precious) has completed his long-awaited Houschka Rounded typeface, a softer new companion to the original Houschka family launched in 1999.

The new six-weight family (Thin, Light, Medium, DemiBold, Bold, ExtraBold) retains the same humanist qualities of the original typeface, a design which is elegant, clean, effortlessly legible and yet full of character. Houschka has already branded the likes of Cadbury Schweppes and Tesco; Houschka Rounded's smooth curves, range of weights, multi-lingual coverage and impressive repertoire of OpenType features will undoubtedly create a whole new buzz.

The typeface has been thoughtfully designed using OpenType technology to give users a choice of additional styles within the same font; a modern contemporary vibe, decorative art deco feel or a quirky 'mixed caps' unicase appearance can be achieved without ever having to switch fonts. The contextual alternates and discretionary ligatures can also be used in conjunction with any of the 4 stylistic sets for maximum versatility.

Says Cooke: "After the release of the original Houschka I discovered that many users liked the font, but were 'uncomfortable' with the rounded style of the A, W and w; straight versions have been incorporated into Houschka Rounded and are accessed by selecting 'ContextualAlternates'.

"I also thought it would be good to offer a little more variety, so there are three extra stylistic sets which are easy to use; just scroll over the text and, using the pop-up OpenType menu in the character palette, select stylistic set 1, 2 or 3. It couldn't be simpler."