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Designers Do a Double Take at the Lettering on Pope Francis’ Tombstone
Irregularly spaced letters spelling “F R A NCISC VS” have caused a stir among typography nerds who specialize in spacing and fonts. One called them “an abomination unto design.”
By Adeel Hassan, NYR (5/4/25)

It seems a small matter to get exercised over, but then it's the pope, after all, and for those who care about it, kerning is a serious business.

The simple slab has only 10 letters, but the spacing between them can make it read like “F R A NCISC VS.”

Of course, the lettering is meant to be read as Franciscus, the derivative of the pope’s name in Latin. (V stood for both u and v in Latin.)

Pope Francis’ marble tomb reflects his simple style and fulfills his desire for an unadorned final resting place. In that sense, the tombstone lettering in Times Roman, a workmanlike font that is widely used in the English language, could be considered appropriate.

But for those who obsess about kerning, the space between letters, the view from above the tomb is not exactly an aesthetically pleasing one.

When it comes to letter spacing, there's trouble in Tiber City today.

“Woe be unto the person who decided to do it the way that they did it, just because it’s a bad decision that will last for a long time, unless they change it,” said Charles Nix, the senior executive creative director at Monotype, one of the world’s largest typeface and technology companies.

…

“But even after getting the spacing as good as it can possibly be, you still end up with pairs of letters, like a capital A and a capital T, that end up having a lot of space between them,” he added. “So we create special kerning pairs and program them into the typeface.”

The double take for some when they look at the letters on the tombstone is caused by the lack of kerning between pairs of letters.

…

For centuries, people have tried to figure out a mathematical way to engrave letters, he said, and it always fails.

…

A lack of kerning is common on grave markers, Mr. Nix said, especially those from the 20th century onward because they are produced very mathematically. That method is far less costly and can accommodate much more text, he said.

I'm not surprised that the "A" standing apart from the other letters in Franciscus caught the attention of esthetically acute observers:

“Why does it look like pressing on the letter ‘A’ will open a secret chamber where the ark of the covenant is stored?” asked Elle Cordova, a digital creator, comedy writer and grammarian.

“It looks like they downloaded a bootlegged version of Times Roman without any kerning data embedded in the file, brought it into some ancient software, like Adobe Scribe 1517 A.D., and then let the software space the letters,” she said. “And this is what you get: an abomination unto design.”

The sensitive sage hath spoken.

Selected readings

• "ISTORMI IDRAINI" (2/16/25)
• "Serif or sans serif?" (3/19/23)
• Why kerning matters" (Wug Life, 12/25/13)
• "Choose your font carefully) (8/22/22)

[h.t. François Lang, Thomas Mair]

May 5, 2025 @ 5:31 pm · Filed by Victor Mair under Kerning, Language and religion, Typography

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