typography

https://chicagokare.xyz

A faithful reproduction of the bitmap version of the Chicago typeface created by Susan Kare for Apple Computer in 1984.

In 2023, I created a generative art project about the Macintosh and in particular, a graphical control element called the Dialog Box (https://dialogbox.es). To create this artwork series, I needed the classic Macintosh typeface, Chicago by Susan Kare. While researching bitmap translations of Chicago, it became obvious that most included errors in individual characters or lacked characters from the original character set altogether. 

I decided to accurately recreate each character from bitmaps extracted from genuine 1984 font data using a combination of modern tools such as Figma, Adobe Illustrator, and Glyphs to manifest the typeface I wish existed — a pixel perfect match to the bitmap original.

Chicago Kare 1.0.0 is the first release of this typeface to the public.