Caledo falls into a category of display typefaces that I would consider not very practical, but beautiful. The exaggerated contrast and extra-condensed letterforms make Caledo difficult to read at times, but those characteristics are what give Caledo its flair. And I love a bit of flair even when it’s not the most practical.

Caledo comes in two weights: Light and Bold. Personally, I find the default word spacing in both weights a little tricky – the bold has too much space between words, the light, too little. So I would recommend Caledo only for situations where either you don’t have a lot of words you need to typeset, or you have control over the word spacing. It would be fun to use on an invitation design or a titling sequence to bring a punch of drama.

Caledo isn’t a typeface you’re likely to use often, but when you need a striking, compressed display typeface, give Caledo a spin.

Released in 2010, Caledo is an open source font licensed under the SIL Open Font License (OFL) and is free for both personal and commercial use.