The Atrament font family was originally conceived in 2003 as the corporate display type family for Suitcase Type Foundry. Its original source of inspiration is the front cover of the Devetsil - Revoluční slovník almanac (1922), designed by Karel Teige. The lettering on this cover is a condensed sans serif with rounded stroke terminals. Atrament is significantly broader than the model and its characters are better balanced, reflecting the evolution of semi-condensed sans serifs throughout the 1960s. The horizontal strokes of both lower and upper case are less stressed than the vertical stems. Noteworthy are the unusual tiny gaps in the apex and vertex of letters with diagonal strokes, designed to prevent ink from spreading and smudging the letter shapes. This detail is one of the main features of the font's character. The general feel of the italics closely matches the strictly vertical, parallel character of the regular cut.
When converting the family to OpenType the alternate character shapes from the Alternator weights were incorporated in the regular cut, which allows the user to switch selected characters from one shape to another within the same font. A number of glyphs and accents were corrected, and all the glyphs missing in the Suitcase Standard character set were added, along with the relevant kerning pairs. The individual weights of Atrament Std thus contain accented upper and lower case, small caps, alternate glyphs for most European languages, nine types of numerals, superscript characters, caps glyph versions, and much more.
Its narrow proportions make Atrament the perfect choice whenever economy of space is a must. It is however not very well suited for setting long texts. Ideal for headlines and display use, it is perfect for situations where the text needs to make a great impact in a little space.