Tiepolo was designed at AlphaOmega Typography for the International Typeface Corporation in 1987.

Described by the design team of Cynthia Hollandsworth and Arthur Baker as a sans serif with serifs, it has strong calligraphic roots, but is usable as a text face as well as display. The italic variant is a true cursive, designed with considerable restraint, a quality not often seen in typefaces based on pen-drawn letterforms.

Tiepolo is a constructed typeface with classic Roman proportions, but a larger than usual x-height; counters are full, while ascenders and descenders are moderate.