Gentium
| Category | Serif |
|---|---|
| Classification | Old-style |
| Designer | Victor Gaultney |
| Date created | 2001 |
| Date released | 2002-09-16 (Gentium 1.00) |
| Characters | 2,780 |
| Glyphs | 4,500 (double counting glyphs used for multiple characters) |
| License | Open Font License |
| Variations | All variants were unified in version 7. Previously: Gentium Basic Gentium Book Basic Gentium Plus Gentium Book Plus Gentium Plus Compact |
| Sample | |
| Website | software |
| Latest release version | 7.00 |
| Latest release date | June 1, 2025 |
Gentium (/ˈdʒɛntiəm/, from the Latin for "of the nations") is a Unicode serif typeface family designed by Victor Gaultney. Gentium fonts are free and open source software, and are released under the SIL Open Font License (OFL), which permits modification and redistribution. Gentium has nearly universal support for modern languages using the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts, as well as the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and other phonetic notation, excepting mostly paleographic and medievalist characters. Gentium includes over 4,600 glyphs and advanced typographic features through OpenType and formerly Graphite.
Gentium was designed for use at 10 to 11 points. Wide counters and low stroke contrast improve readability at small point sizes. Long ascenders allow diacritics stacking. In 2003, the Gentium font was awarded a Certificate of Excellence in Type Design from the Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI) as one of the best designs of the previous five years.