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Chancery Lane is a condensed cursive with a breezy, flowing feel. Many of the lowercase characters join up, some uppercase ones too, and the two fonts are slantier than many other chancery-inspired faces, inclined at almost 20°. Each glyph has slightly rounded corners to bestow softness and warmth.
The typeface emerged from a study of pen lettering, italic scripts and chancery hands – down a rabbit hole and along the Chancery Lane. The research ranged from early cancellaresca manuscripts to contemporary fonts, and also calligraphic work, most notably that of Indian artist Mayank Baranwal whose lowercase letters inspired many of the Chancery Lane glyphs.
Uppercase characters have been designed to harmonise with the lowercase rather than providing overly ornamental openers, true to origins that were functional rather than fancy. Both the capitals and the uppercase alternates are unfussy and relatively simple, and the lowercase swash characters are similarly understated, only modestly flourished. Stylistic alternates and lowercase swash characters can be accessed using OpenType-aware applications or font management software.