Retina (typeface)

The Wall Street Journal's stock tables were the problem: thousands of tiny figures printed on newsprint. Tobias Frere-Jones answered with Retina, created in 2000 in a MicroPlus size for composing tiny yet readable listings. Its MicroPlus weights have deep-cut notches that absorb ink in print, and each letter keeps the same width in every weight, so a column can change emphasis without resetting its tab stops. MoMA acquired it in 2011 as one of 23 digital fonts in its permanent collection, and after years of further work it was released to the public on October 5, 2016, a rare honor for type nobody was supposed to notice.