Myriad is a humanist sans-serif, a relatively informal design taking influences from handwriting. Its letterforms are open rather than "folded-up" on the nineteenth-century grotesque sans-serif model, and its sloped form is a "true italic" based on handwriting. The 'g' is single-storey and the 'M' has sloped sides on the model of Roman square capitals. As a family intended for body text and influenced by traditional book printing, text figures are included as well as lining figures at cap height. Twombly described the design process as one of swapping ideas to create a "homogenous" design but said that in retrospect she found the experience "too hard" to want to repeat.