Several revivals of the Didot faces have been made, first for
hot metal typesetting and then for
phototype and digital versions. Among the most successful contemporary adaptations are the ones drawn by
Adrian Frutiger for the Linotype foundry, and by
Jonathan Hoefler for
H&FJ. Hoefler's design anticipates the degradation of hairline in smaller point sizes by employing heavier weighted strokes in the smaller point sizes. Additionally, a
libre open source implementation of Didot including the
Cyrillic and
Greek alphabet was released under the name
Theano Didot by the Russian historian Alexey Kryukov. Digital use of Didot poses challenges. While it can look very elegant due to the regular, rational design and fine strokes, a known effect on readers is 'dazzle', where the thick verticals draw the reader's attention and cause them to struggle to concentrate on the other, much thinner strokes that define which letter is which. For this reason, using a font adapted to the intended text size —
optical sizing — has been described as particularly essential with Didone designs. Fonts to be used at text sizes will be sturdier designs with thicker 'thin' strokes and serifs (less stroke contrast) and more space between letters than on display designs, to increase legibility. (Optical sizes were a natural requirement of printing technology in the time of metal type, since each size of metal type would be custom-cut, but declined as digital fonts made printing the same font at any size possible. A revival has taken place in recent years but they are normally only offered in commercial fonts.) ==Usage==