In looking for a dramatic font with Roman roots, the designers of “The Da Vinci Code” posters and marketing materials could easily have relied on good ol’ Trajan. Instead, they went with something less common: Penumbra Serif. The Penumbra set is derived from the same classical Roman lettering as Trajan, but comes in three finishes — Sans, Flare, and Serif — and a larger range of weights.

Penumbra Serif Regular

 

Penumbra Serif Semi Bold

 

Penumbra Flare

 

Penumbra Sans

 

A simple flip of the ‘V’ to make an ‘A’ and a gradient fill customizes the typeface for the Da Vinci logo.

More background on Penumbra from Adobe:

Penumbra, designed by Lance Hidy in 1994, is an all-​capital design. Hidy derived Penumbra from his poster lettering-​monoline forms with a blending of contem­porary and tradi­tional qualities, which has evolved since the 1970s. Penumbra’s style range from a Futura-​like sans serif to a Sistina-​like serif can be success­fully used in myriad display situa­tions. Hidy says about his typeface: “Penumbra is an ‘androg­ynous’ letterform which morphs between the worlds of sans serif and serif.”

Update: Lance Hidy sent us some of his personal design work using Penumbra. Two stamps and a poster for Davis Kidd Booksellers also feature his illustrations.

See more Penumbra in May’s FontShop News.