Fresh off the release of Retina, designed by Tobias Frere-Jones for the grueling small sizes of stock listings, comes Exchange — a counterpart text typeface that was also originally made for the Wall Street Journal. Now Exchange is available to everyone, for web and sync use, on Typekit Marketplace.

The epitome of contemporary news text typefaces, Exchange features refined, balanced letterforms that are expressive in a quiet, consistent way. Its upright letterforms feel smart and well-prepared, like a fresh haircut or a tailored pair of slacks. Its italics are like a brisk walk, its bolds like a sturdy leather briefcase.

Christian Schwartz remarked, “Exchange is the logical endpoint for most of the current trends in news text faces,” naming Exchange one of Typographica’s favorite typefaces.

Comparing (from top) Ionic, Exchange, and Bell Gothic.

Exchange uses optical tricks gleaned from historically successful typefaces for incredible clarity and copy-fitting efficiency at text sizes. Tobias writes:

Exchange’s two main teachers are the “Ionics” of nineteenth century Britain (an early form of slab serif) and Bell Gothic from 1938 in the US. The Ionic serif was a powerful tool for binding letters together into words. And the lowercase arches of Bell Gothic were a terrific defense against ink spread. (Bell Gothic was made for printing phone books at high speed on thin paper, so its strategies have a natural sympathy with newspapers.)

Comprising ten standard styles ranging from Extra Light to Bold, as well as eight MicroPlus styles made for use at small sizes both on screen and in print, Exchange features excellent language support and, as you might expect, all of the features required for the finest text typesetting.

All styles of Exchange are available to license from Typekit Marketplace, which you do not need a paid Creative Cloud subscription to use. With an Adobe ID, you can sync the fonts via the Creative Cloud desktop app. The fonts you purchase are then yours to use in any desktop application, and can be hosted on the web via Typekit as well.

Let us know where you use it, and get in touch with us on Twitter or email if you have any questions about finding Exchange on Marketplace.