I released Encercle on February 19, 2022. It grew out of my earlier projects Numbers with Rings and Numberpile, both of which offered circled numeral systems but had limitations. Numbers with Rings in particular required full OpenType feature support, which effectively meant it only worked in Adobe applications. An architect who had struggled with that system suggested ways to simplify it, and their feedback guided me toward Encercle. The name was also their suggestion, taken from the French word for “encircle.”

Encercle launched as two related families: Encercle Sans, a straightforward set of drawn forms, and Encercle Draft, which mimicked casual architectural hand lettering. Both were designed as paid fonts from the start. At launch, the system allowed users to generate numbers in circles, squares, boxes, diamonds, hexagons, octagons, triangles, and even cartoon-style thought or quote bubbles. It worked with numbers up to six digits, as well as with letters and punctuation. Using the Bold setting created an inverse, white-on-black style.

The system was engineered to be more intuitive than its predecessors. Rather than relying on complex OpenType substitutions, users could simply hold the shift key, specify the frame size, and type the desired content. I also supplied a PDF manual to explain the features and show examples. Although it never achieved notable use, the font marked an effort to create a more practical drafting and diagramming tool by responding directly to user feedback.