Author's note

WhatA-Relief, D. Rakowski's free Art Deco display font from 1992, turns the letters into sharp, chiseled forms with a carved-stone attitude. The caps feel tall and theatrical, with steep diagonals, clipped corners, and a layered relief look that gives even simple words a poster-era snap.

It works well on vintage-inspired packaging, nightclub flyers, film title cards, magazine cover lines, and bold monograms, where the free font can lean on its sculpted silhouette rather than long text. Use it when you want a headline to feel architectural and a little dramatic, because the letters already carry their own built-in depth.

Tags

Character map

Please use the pulldown menu to view different character maps contained in this font.
Basic Latin - Character map

Basic font information

Copyright notice
WhatA-Relief (c) 1992 by D. Rakowski. All Rights Reserved.
Font family
WhatA-Relief
Font subfamily
Regular
Unique subfamily identification
Altsys Fontographer 3.5 WhatA-Relief Regular
Full font name
WhatA-Relief Regular
Name table version
Altsys Fontographer 3.5 4/26/92
Postscript font name
WhatA-Relief Regular

Extended font information

Platforms supported

PlatformEncoding
UnicodeUnicode 1.0 semantics
MacintoshRoman
MicrosoftUnicode BMP only

Font details

Created1992-04-26
Revision1
Glyph count86
Units per Em1050
Embedding rightsEmbedding for permanent installation
Family classSans serif
WeightBold
WidthMedium (normal)
Mac styleBold
DirectionOnly strongly left to right glyphs + contains neutrals
Pattern natureRegular
PitchNot monospaced
Complete pack contains 2 font weights listed below:
whatrlf.ttf
WhatA-Relief-Italic.ttf