Type Hero #11: Braille Institute Atkinson Hyperlegible Typeface – Free Font Download



Atkinson Hyperlegible, designed for Braille Institute, is a free typeface created specifically to increase legibility for readers with low vision, and to improve comprehension.

Named for the founder of Braille Institute, Atkinson Hyperlegible is a traditional grotesque sans-serif at its core.

It departs from tradition to incorporate umambiguous, distinctive elements—and at times, unexpected forms—always with the goal of increasing character recognition, and ultimately improve reading.

Braille Institute is a nonprofit organization that embraces the unique challenges of sight loss and low vision, and rejects perceived limitations.

Braille Institue Logo Design
Braille Institute of America Logo Design

As a side note, I have to say I’m really fond of the Braille Institute logo.

The logo mark using the: initial b followed by a braille dot, is as literal as you can get, which is no bad thing when it also looks so clean and strong.

It’s a flawlessly practical, and very distinct. Also helps that the typography really looks fantastic.

Braille Institue Logo Design
Braille Institute of America Logo

Features of Atkinson Hyperlegible

  • 04 Four fonts, including two weights, in both roman and oblique.
  • 1340 – One thousand, three hundred, and forty total glyphs across all fonts.
  • 335 – Three hundred and thirty-five glyphs per font
  • 27 – Accent characters supporting twenty-seven languages
  • Recognizable Footprints – Character boundaries clearly, defined, ensuring understanding across the visual-ability spectrum
  • Differentiated Letterforms – Similar letter pairs are differentiated from each other to dramatically increase legibility
  • Unambigiuous Characters – Increase legibility for people with low vision or poor reading comprehension
  • Exaggerated Forms – Clarify potential misreadings
  • Opened Counterspace– Defines open spaces better
  • Angeled Spurs – Increase recognition and define distinctive style
  • Circular Details – Links to the history of Braille Institute and braille dots
Atkinson Hyperlegible Typeface Free Download
Recognizable Footprints Differentiated Letterforms
Atkinson Hyperlegible Typeface Free Download
Braille Institute Atkinson Hyperlegible Font Features

Download Atkinson Hyperlegible

The first downlink, in Red, takes you to the Braille Institute website, where you can find the Atkinson Hyperlegible Typeface Download link.

Download Atkinson Hyperlegible

The 2nd download link, in Blue, is a back-up of the download compressed as a ZIP, and saved into my Dropbox.

I’ve done this as sometimes things change, links get moved, download links disappear, so this way the font files are preserved.

Download Atkinson Hyperlegible


Atkinson Hyperlegible Specifications

Atkinson Hyperlegible Typeface Free Download

What is Type Hero?

Type Hero is where I pick out certain fonts and typefaces that I find particularly cool, useful, charming, endearing, value for money etc.

For the most part the font choices will be geared towards styles that I feel would work well in a logo and brand identity design scenario.

MyFonts has become a steady source of font inspiration, so many will be sourced from there, but I will also highlight fonts direct from other independent font foundries and font designers, when possible.


Braille Institue Atkinson Hyperlegible free typeface Featured