MegaMegaTypeType
A 1951–52 Soviet slab serif from Polygraphmash, digitised in 1988 and expanded in 2008, based on Jakob Erbar's Candida with characteristically thinned serifs and generous capitals.
About
Designed at the Polygraphmash type design bureau by Vera Chiminova, Isay Slutsker and colleagues, Baltica borrows its underlying structure from Ludwig & Mayer's Candida (1936) whilst reducing the serif weight to improve legibility at small sizes. The large x-height and wide capitals suit newspaper and magazine body text, and the condensed styles extend its range to tighter column settings. Alexander Tarbeev produced the initial digital version in 1988; Manvel Shmavonyan later added small capitals, extra bold and extra condensed cuts, released by ParaType in 2008.
Classification
Baltica carries the structure of a slab serif but with thinner serifs than typical examples of the genre, placing it closer to a hybrid between slab and transitional forms. It descends from Jakob Erbar's Candida (1936), retaining generous capitals and a large x-height.