Print Canada An Independent Quarterly  ·  Stitched, Posted, Kept Letters: letters@printmag.org

PRINTCanada

All the noise that is not fit to feed. Letters from a country that still reads.
PRINT Canada · The Brand

How PRINT looks, and why.

PRINT is an independent Canadian magazine. It has no advertisers and no investors, so the only thing the look has to serve is the reader and the record. This page is the live state of that look: the mark, the palette, the type, the pictures, and the rules that do not bend.

The mark

PRINT in Playfair Display, weight 900, tight. Canada beneath it in UnifrakturCook blackletter. White on dark, black on light, never recoloured.

PRINTCanada
PRINTCanada

Colour

Black ink on white paper, one press red for emphasis, and a small range of greys. That is the whole palette.

PRINT Black#0a0a0a · ink
Paper#ffffff
Press Red#e0241a · accent only
Grey#6b6b6b
Grey 2#bbbbbb
Grey 3#e8e8e8 · rules

Typography

A Didone for display, a quiet serif for reading, a mono for labels, and a blackletter for one word only.

Display · Playfair Display 900
The fair trial we no longer offer.
Body · Lora
A working health system has a range. What has happened is that the routine middle has been squeezed almost out of existence, and most illnesses are neither very lucky nor very patient.
Labels · IBM Plex Mono
Citizens · Know Your Rights · Retrospective
The one blackletter word · UnifrakturCook
Canada

Pictures

Every article carries one original illustration, never a stock photograph. A different illustration tradition each time, so the magazine reads like it has a stable of artists. Every image wears the cover-mark.

An example PRINT article illustration with the cover-mark.

An article hero, branded. One bold metaphor, one chosen tradition.

The cover-mark

PRINT top-left, the article date bottom-right. Colour is chosen automatically from each corner so it always reads. Text is never baked by the image model; it is stamped cleanly afterward.

One metaphor

Each picture is a single conceptual idea, the New Yorker "aha". Dignified on grave subjects, witty on absurd ones. No real brands, no identifiable people, no words inside the art.

The traditions we draw on

A rotating library, referenced for technique only, never copied:

Flat New Yorkerclean line, one surreal metaphor
Oil coverpainterly chiaroscuro, gravitas
Bold graphicthick outline, saturated poster
Dark painterlygrain, one dramatic light
Riso graintwo or three colours, printed feel
Inked editorialhand line, flat fills
Glossy surrealairbrushed, neon gradient
Flat quietmuted earth, calm conceptual

Voice and standards

The look serves the writing. The writing has rules that never bend.

Civilian first

Every story is told from the side of the citizen against the institution. The court, the hospital, the bank, the border desk, the benefits office, judged by what they deliver to the person in front of them.

No em dashes. No emojis.

Commas, periods, and new sentences carry the rhythm. Anywhere, ever.

Anonymised

No plaintiff or accused names, no defendant company names, no file numbers. Cities and ages are permitted. Litigation subjects are protected.

Precision over heat

On contested facts we state what is established, what is alleged, and what is unconfirmed, separately. Nothing is invented to make a case sharper than the facts allow.

Honest dating

Retrospectives are dated to their event so the archive spans the era, and every one carries a visible "published 2026" label. We never present a look-back as live reporting.

The structure

Three rooms. No more.

CoverOne photograph or one illustration, one word. Whatever the country looks like that day.
CitizensWhat citizens carry. Courts, health, banks, housing, policing, the road.
ArtWhat artists make.

Published by PRINT Canada. The art department is run by the Art Editor; the cover-mark and the style library are theirs to keep consistent. This page reflects the current state of the brand and is updated as it changes.