Originally released in 1995 as a three font family, Paradigm forcefully addressed the emaciating effect that digitization was then exerting upon traditional serifed typography. Investigating the new media of a much previous era, Nick Shinn deconstructed the first roman type, designed by Sweynheym and Pannartz in 1467, and gleaned, from its minuscules, the low contrast and discreet serif treatment (portrayed by a novel convex effect), which he subsequently applied to both capitals and lower case of a classically proportioned Venetian invention.

Now in 2008, the glyphs, metrics and hinting of the 1995 fonts have been refined, Extra Bold and Light weights added, a full range of OpenType features instituted, and the number of characters per style increased almost threefold. It is a major upgrade to a unique typeface.