New Work: KL Type Foundry

An experienced designer hangs out their own shingle; delivering high-quality fonts without the hype

Published: 27 Oct 2026

Topics: Type Advisor, Writing, Work, Typography

TL;DR: Buy fonts from Kent. You can thank me later.

KL Type (dot) com

I’m excited to announce the launch of a brand-new type foundry from a not-so-brand-new type designer, Kent Lew. I don’t say this because Kent is older; rather I say this out of admiration of his skill and career in type design that he has built over decades — mostly out of the public eye.

I like to think of Kent as a “type designer’s type designer” because his thoughtful and analytical approach to fonts shines clearly in his typefaces. Since his career path started in graphic and book design, Kent makes “extraordinarily ordinary typefaces” that I can confidently label as “workhorse fonts” in a world that overuses that phrase.

Working with my good pal Jason Santa Maria from Loud Room, the three of us are proud of the work because the site looks so much like Kent and shows off his typefaces, while keeping his distinct character (no pun intended, promise!) as a designer and person.

About Kent Lew

Kent has designed for and with the biggest names in type design such as Richard Lipton and Matthew Carter — doing everything from font production, font marketing, to adding characters to famous typefaces such as Big Caslon and ITC Galliard CC.

He makes typefaces that work hard and make your hard work look easy.

Many people can flippantly say they “craft typefaces,” but Kent’s proof is in the pudding. I personally promise (though I admit my bias as Kent is a Type Advisor client) that you can purchase a license for any of his typefaces and it will quickly become your go-to font for setting all types of text.

What’s New

I worked with Kent on every aspect of his decision to “hang out his own shingle” from our earliest discussions back in February about “Should I even do this?!” to writing a customized EULA that has generosity built in, and setting up a pricing and marketing strategy.

Parling - A new sans serif typeface from Kent Lew

His work naturally fits into long-form typesetting, but check out Parling: at first glance, it might look like “just a basic sans serif” but the longer you spend with it, the more you will notice the humble and human aspects he has imparted to the typeface.

A new take on Benton’s News Gothic and Matthew Carter’s Verdana, but with a touch of humanistic form? YES, PLEASE!

A Customized Basic EULA

Now, I know 95% of people don’t bother reading the End User License Agreement when they license a font, but I promise that Kent’s basic EULA is worth the effort.

We spent months crafting every aspect of the license to find the balance between “make it simple for the user” and maintaining reasonable limits that don’t take advantage of Kent. A few things to point out:

It is based on generosity: Desktop, web, app, PDFs, ePubs, are all included in the basic license. This came from how real work gets done today because fonts live in different devices, with internal and external designers, and end up in many more places than just the printed page.
Your success is your success: if your website goes viral or a video takes off, you will not be hit up for more money. Yes, if your company (and thus, your user number) grows, you will need to come back for a larger license, but the trust goes both ways.
Kent has strong feelings about artificial intelligence and we put it directly in the EULA so there is no doubt that his intellectual property cannot be used for training or machine learning.

Pricing with the User in Mind

Whitman Display - A typeface from Kent Lew

Font licensing 20 years ago was straightforward: “How many computers are you putting this font on?”

Since then, everything has changed: we now have web fonts, fonts for apps, fonts for servers, variable fonts, fonts for car displays, and there isn’t even a clear definition of a “device” that applies these days. For KL Type, Kent wanted to make it fair and simple:

Pricing is based on one metric only: the number of users using the font to create content. Kent understands he doesn’t have the time or the patience to audit people’s websites and he doesn’t believe it is fair to penalize success and ask for more money once someone has more visitors.
Individual fonts are $60 each because Kent sees his fonts as an investment. They are not built for one-time use but rather as fonts that will be useful for many years.
Because Kent is such a typographer at heart, he believes that many people only need the “basic four” styles of a font for most work, so he has created RIBBI Quartets (Regular, Italic, Bold, Bold Italic) for each typeface.

“In the Works” Section

Haffner Display in use for TIME Magazine

Every type designer I know has a bottom drawer full of half-drawn typefaces and ideas in the works, but very few put them out into the world like Kent does on the “In the Works” page.

As of today, he is showing three typefaces that are not yet finished, but he hopes that by putting them out into the public, he will receive some feedback and encouragement to push them over the finish line and fully finalize the design.

Think of it a bit like Future Fonts, but personal to Kent and his ideas.

Need Help Like This?

Are you a type designer looking to start your own foundry and need help launching your site?
Or are you a graphic designer who needs help understanding a complicated EULA for your agency’s client pitch?
Or is your company being squeezed by a type distributor and you need an expert opinion on how to save money and streamline your legal coverage?

If any of these sound like you, book a free 30-minute call. I’ve spent 20+ years in design and type, and I’ll tell you honestly whether I can help with zero pressure.