I released Silentina on April 26, 2004. The goal was to recreate the look of silent film intertitles, so I studied screen captures from films such as Buster Keaton’s The General and The Phantom of the Opera with Lon Chaney. To trace the origins, I consulted metal type catalogs, identifying Pastel and Della Robbia as likely sources. Silentina was split into two related fonts: Silentina Movie, based on Pastel, and Silentina Film, which combined lowercase Pastel with uppercase Della Robbia to reflect the mixed-font practice often seen in intertitles.

One defining feature of Silentina was its softness. I drew the outlines without sharp edges, rather than applying filters afterward, so the letters would look authentic and would drop directly into projects without extra blurring. The soft edges also helped prevent interlace flicker when used for DVD intertitles. I kept the serifs intentionally vague, leaving them open to interpretation as either Pastel’s or Della Robbia’s, which reinforced the ambiguity found in early film typography.

Silentina has been used in actual film work, including the 2011 feature The Artist. On November 22, 2024, I updated Silentina Film to fix an issue with the A with ogonek character and modernized the name tables for better menu compatibility. Both fonts in the Silentina family have always been paid products. The names “Movie” and “Film” were chosen mainly for SEO purposes, to make them easier to find for people looking for silent-era styles.