Apologies if this is a stupid question but I was wondering if Splentino has an actual asterisk character? I just noticed that it has a five-point star which looks pretty stylish, but I need it to call out a footnote and I want that to be obvious at a glance. Is it somewhere in the font or do I have to borrow it from another font? (And if so, which one would be the best fit?)
Thanks in advance!
It doesnāt seem so.
Jesper
Academicoās is quite nice IMO.
@Zalde, hereās a Franken-font, Splentino with the Academico asterisk subbed in.
Splentisko-Regular.otf.zip (35.6 KB)
Haha youāre amazing Dan, thanks a lot!
Dander status: high.
The word āasteriskā means ālittle starāā¦! ![]()
Splentino has the same style of asterisk style as the original hot metal version of Plantin. And indeed, the Plantin used by OUP has the same form, and is used for footnote indications in many publications.
Bembo is not dissimilar:
Hereās Adobe Garamond:
Hereās Bauer Bodoniā¦!
Hereās the hardest working font in show-business, Helvetica:
The āpetalā lobed style is certainly common, either in 5 spokes or 6, but itās hardly definitive.
..perhaps it could be a bit higher, thoughā¦
Didnāt mean to ruffle your feathers, @benwiggy (Iām not sure how I should translate ādanderā but Iām guessing thatās what I did). I knew that āactual asterisk characterā was probably not the most appropriate phrasing but I couldnāt think of anything else at the time. I know the meaning of the word. In Dutch most people actually call the thing sterretje which literally means⦠little star. Perhaps I should have called it a more plebeian asterisk character
.
I didnāt mean the petal style per se, but the more abstract shape that (in your examples) Adobe Garamond, Helvetica and even Bauer Bodoni also have.
I think that the height rather than the shape is actually what made me think about all this. I just played around a bit with baseline shift and even made it slightly smaller and I quite like the look of that.
So this was by no means intended as criticism of your work. Iām a fan of your fonts, I use Sebastian and Splentino in all my projects. Please accept my apology if my post came across the wrong way.
Iām rather obsessive about asterices. Minion Pro, which I use for almost everything, has an asterisk I canāt stand.
Swift LT Pro, meanwhile, seems to live by āGo big or go homeā ![]()
Only faux-ruffled. I broadly welcome feedback. ![]()
If youāre ever in Antwerp, I do recommend a trip to the Plantin-Moretus Museum. Itās a cracking day out.
As an outsider from this topic, I would say that I see Zaldeās point - if I were to see a score (or a book or article) with a star next to the words, my immediate thought would not be to search for a footnote. It appears decorative or perhaps indicative of something else (like starring something to signify that itās special or higher priority etc). Whereas an asterisk as in the second example is less ambiguous - I see it and I immediately think: āoh, whereās the footnote?ā
The ālittle starā tidbit is interesting but I think in everyday practice this is less common and a little more ambiguous, especially to modern readersā¦
Thanks for the Frankenfont Dan!
And Ben for the record I love Splentino. Itās beautiful ![]()





