DataLife Engine - Softnews Media Group

Bifur was originally designed by poster artist A.M. Cassandre. This Art Deco type design was issued by the French foundry Deberny & Peignot in 1929. Even upon it's original release and promotion, suggestions on how not to use Bifur were presented. As with most highly decorative display faces, the use should be selective and used sparingly. Of course the layout of "THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO USE BIFUR" in repeated paragraph form has become a famous design and appears in many surveys of design history.

Bifur (abbreviation of Bifurcation: a division into two parts) was originally designed as a single font (cut in several sizes with the number of parallel lines increasing as the point size increased) and also as a two-part font that could be printed in two solid colors. Cassandre only designed the upper case characters, numbers and basic punctuation. The "bifurcation" occurs with the bold "keyline" being the most basic recognizable element in the Letter ( Z and N being simply a diagonal line) and the secondary part being a solid shape or a tone created with the parallel lines). It was fairly popular (although not a financial success) and often imitated for display lettering. Occasionally these imitations made some innovations but mostly they were poor substitutes. One imitator attempted a lower case. This was used as a starting point for the P22 version which adds a lower case while keeping the upper case and all original characters true to the original Cassandre design.

The 6 font family of P22 Bifur was created with a range of uses in mind. P22 Bifur A features wide lines and line spacing. This is intended to be used at 48 points and larger. P22 Bifur B features narrow lines and line spacing. This is intended to be used at 100 points and larger. P22 Bifur C features only the Keyline. Upper case could be used by itself for experimental typography, but this is intended to be used as a companion to P22 Bifur D, E or F) To use the two-part fonts see "DESIGN TIP" below. P22 Bifur D features the solid counter shapes to accompany P22 Bifur C. P22 Bifur E features the wide line option to accompany P22 Bifur C. P22 Bifur F features the narrow line option to accompany P22 Bifur C.