In 2007, The Calcografía Nacional Española organized a project directed by José María Ribagorda with the objective of divulging the invaluable typographic heritage produced in Spain in the 18th century through the "Imprenta Real".

This project included the recovery of the types designed by Geronimo Gil for the edition of the most beautiful "Quixote" never edited, printed by Joaquín Ibarra for the “Real Academia de la Lengua” in 1780. This font was called “Ibarra Real”.

José María Ribagorda decided in 2015 that Octavio Pardo would be the first collaborator to play the design. Octavio was the first student of the University of Reading MA Typeface Design program to study this project.

The Ornaments made by celebrated Latin American and Spanish designers would not be included until their authors allow them to be distributed under the SIL Open Source License.

To contribute, see Ibarra Real GitHub