Shapely is designed with elements of classical calligraphy expressed in a very modern idiom. It embodies the Scholtz signature - casual, extravagant, bold design with an underlying attention to detail and legibility. Numerous ligatures emphasize immediacy and the handwritten quality of the finished product creates a feeling of variety, spontaneity and flexibility.

The font abounds with extravagant flourishes, however, with almost every character, plainer alternatives are available through OpenType technology. This frees the user to put an individual stamp on his use of the font. There are a total of 70 ligatures and alternate characters that use OpenType technology to expand the flexibility and power of Shapely.

The font contains all upper and lower case characters, punctuation, numerals and mathematical operators, as well as all accented characters used in European languages.