LTC Athena brings a somewhat “lost” hot-metal typeface back from obscurity into digital Opentype format. In fall 2012, printing historian Rich Hopkins contacted P22 type foundry regarding some inked type drawings he had just uncovered from his acquisition of the Baltimore-based “Baltotype” company some 20 years ago. It is a rare face whose original matrices were destroyed and thought fully lost. The drawings included a full upper and lower case set, numerals, basic punctuation, and alternate forms of some letters.

The design is a narrow deco-flavored design from the 1950s with a curious avoidance of straight lines in the stems and main strokes.

The face has been expanded to over 340 characters by Miranda Roth and includes ligatures as well as a full Pan-European character set. It is released through the Lanston division of P22 in consideration of its earlier incarnation as a metal typeface.