RICALCA
v1.310 / MIT

RICALCA IS A TYPEFACE BASED UPON POMPEII WALL INSCRIPTIONS. DEVELOPED WITH THE HELP OF AI MODELS.

Pompeian fresco figure with a lyre beside a blue sea-horse

An experimental font developed from mural inscriptions found in Pompeii in 2021. Seedream 5.0, Claude opus 5 and GPT SOL 5.6 helped building this font, analysing the inscriptions I had the pleasure to see during my visit in Pompeii.

Pompeii, Italy Painted letters → Digital typeface
Scroll to excavate ↓
R / 001 Open source

The typeface

An ancient painted voice, redrawn for the present.

RICALCA is a contemporary digital typeface reconstructed from painted wall inscriptions photographed in Pompeii in 2021, close to a thermopolium — the Roman ancestor of a street bar and tavola calda.

Drawing
Dario Torrisi
Character set
100 characters
Method
Photo tracing + AI-assisted analysis
License
MIT / Free to use

The place / Regio V

Pompeii’s ancientstreet food.

Brought fully to light in 2020 and opened to the public in 2021, the Thermopolium of Regio V preserves its painted counter, inset dolia and vivid images of the food once served there.

Painted serving counter with roosters and a dog at the Thermopolium of Regio V in Pompeii
Ancient Roman thermopolium counter with inset serving jars and a painted wall behind it
Wide view of the excavated Thermopolium of Regio V and its painted counter

Thermopolium photographs: Jamie Heath / Wikimedia Commons —CC BY-SA 2.0

Source material / Pompeii 2021

From wall to outline

The irregular pressure, sharp brush endings and narrow proportions were preserved rather than regularised away.

Painted CASELLIUM inscription on a wall in Pompeii
01CASELLIUM / primary lowercase rhythmPompeii, 2021
Tall red painted inscription on a Pompeii wall
02Sharp terminals / uppercase sourcePompeii, 2021
Weathered red lettering painted on plaster in Pompeii
03Brush modulation / wall texturePompeii, 2021

Live type tester

Write on the wall

124px
0px
This is a perfect font for a Lorem Ipsum, right? Anyway, please test it, write whatever you'd like the most here and download the typeface. It's free! Thanks, D.

Click the specimen and type anything.

Tracing laboratory / Pompeii 2021

Read the wall, rebuild the letter.

Compare the original photograph with the surviving pigment and the structural outline used to draw RICALCA. Every contour comes from the photographed inscriptions.

View
S Width / height 0.348 DSCF2499, checked against exposures DSCF2498 and DSCF2500
Tracing analysis of the letter SPhotograph of the painted letter with selectable pigment and structural contour overlays. Photo + tracing
Surviving pigment Structural contour Measured optical limits

Taut diagonal spine; near-angular curves; opposing blade-like terminals.

Selected glyphRU+0052

Character set

100 signs, one painted system

Further reading / Arte.it (in Italian) Pompeii opens its thermopolium:
the fast food of the ancient Romans. A short journey through its painted counter, embedded jars and the food remains that reveal how Pompeians ate outside the home. Read the article Painted rooster from the Thermopolium of Regio V
POMPEII
THERMOPOLIUM
painted words endure

Free download / Version 1.310

Take RICALCA. Use it. Change it. Share it.

RICALCA is released under the MIT License. You may use it in personal and commercial projects, copy it, modify it, redistribute it and include it in larger works. Keep the copyright and license notice with substantial copies of the font.

Download all formatsTTF / WOFF2 / MITPainted dog from Pompeii
Commercial use ✓ Modification ✓ Redistribution ✓ Attribution notice required