Trilby’s open shapes and generous spacing make it well-suited for text and mid-range settings. At the same time, Trilby’s distinctive shapes can really pop at display sizes.
When setting Trilby in display, I like to make a few tweaks to help it work better. The above example shows Trilby Bold with its default settings.
Adjust tracking. Depending on the size, tightening the tracking by -25 to -35 units will usually do the trick, although I’ve used more extreme tracking with all-italics settings. I pay close attention to how the tracking affects whitespace between the serifs.
Disable ligatures. I usually turn off standard ligatures since they can create gaps once negative tracking is applied, but leave Contextual Alternates on to minimize collisions.
Try the short f. I sometimes turn on Stylistic Set 17 to replace the default lowercase f with a shorter alternate that doesn’t hang over the following letter.
Take advantage of stylistic alternates. Trilby comes with various stylistic alternates, including a barred capital A, a looped capital Q, and single story forms of lowercase a and g. Using these can give the face an entirely new look.