[b]) Many of the letter forms of Joanna are characteristic of Gill's preferences, for example the lack of serif on the top left of the 'a', the splayed leg of the 'R' and handwriting-like italic 'g', with many similarities to his stonecarving and also to his other serif typefaces, Cockerel and Perpetua, for example in its handwriting-style italic 'g'.

[4] Later around 1937, Monotype recut Joanna for their hot metal typesetting system for exclusive use by publisher J. M. Dent.

[12] The original metal type, however, was Gill's property, and is now partly in the collection of the Clark Library in Los Angeles.

"[6] Like several Monotype typefaces digitised in the early digital era, the original digital release was criticised for being too light compared to the real thing, though this effect may be compensated for when printing on poor-quality paper into which ink tends to absorb and spread.

[15][16][17] Monotype released in 2015 a more complete and fuller-bodied digitisation named Joanna Nova (shown), by Ben Jones.

The resulting font superfamily was one of the first such designs to be popular, and remains common in book printing.

[24] Joanna is the corporate typeface of the United States' Department of Homeland Security, while Scala is used on its seal.