Nearly every rendition of the Latin alphabet you've ever seen finds its origin in a broad pen, held at an angle between 10 to 50 degrees. Most serif fonts lend their structures to a 30 degree pen angle, even now, hundreds of years after the transition from writing to printing.

Mancine ("man-chee-nay"), conversely, is based on calligraphy written with a broad nib held around 150 degrees. This is how a lefty would naturally hold their pen (if their writing teacher didn’t beat it out of them), and the polar opposite of what our eyes expect.

This unusual contrast structure lends itself to unusual letterforms. Great — but making them actually look good is another story. That’s where Art Nouveau comes in: through the lens of this ever-inspiring movement, these left-handed letterforms become graceful, bohemian, and wholly unique while strangely familiar.

Mancine employs “trailing caps”: an OpenType feature which automatically substitutes all capitals after the initial swashy cap with simplified versions, to allow for better usability in uppercase texts.

Perhaps it can be tricky to use a typeface with so little precedent, but it allows amazing opportunities too — Mancine’s users will find themselves unhindered by connotations, able to make some truly groundbreaking work. In this era of regurgitation, blandness and AI slop, there is no higher purpose.