Sitka is designed for reading, at any size. It has six optical sizes, different versions of the same letters that are subtly adjusted to work best at a particular range of sizes. Sitka Text is ideal for body text, while the larger sizes are, as their names suggest, useful for subheads, headlines, titles, and large banners. Sitka’s letters are wide and open, even in the italics. Use Sitka for long body text and accompanying headings of various sizes, choosing the appropriate optical size for each. When you set a heading all in capital letters, expand the spaces between letters slightly for optimum readability.
Sitka was designed to be extremely legible. Type designer Matthew Carter worked with Microsoft’s legibility experts to find the most legible forms for a serif typeface, then developed the range of optical sizes. The process was a successful test of integrating design experience with the results of scientific legibility testing.
