Univers

Infobox font
name = Univers bethu


style = sans-serif
classifications = Grotesque sans-serif
date = 1957
creator = Adrian Frutiger
foundry = Deberny & Peignot Linotype
variations = Zurich|dablink|This article is about a typeface; for information about similarly spelled topics, see Universe (disambiguation).__NOTOC__

Univers (IPA2|ynivɛʀ, French: "universe") is the name of a realist sans-serif typeface designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1954 [Meggs, Philip B. (1998). "Meggs' History of Graphic Design - 4th Edition". John Wiley & Sons. p.361. ISBN 0-471-69902-0(2] .

Originally conceived and released by Deberny & Peignot in 1957, the type library was acquired in 1972 by Haas. Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei (Haas Type Foundry) was later folded into the D. Stempel AG and Linotype collection in 1985 and 1989 respectively.

Characteristics

Univers is one of a group of neo-grotesque sans-serif typefaces, all released in 1957 [Spiekermann, Erik and E.M. Ginger (2003). "Stop Stealing Sheep & find out how type works". Peachpit Press, p. 65. ISBN 9780201703399] , that includes Folio and Neue Haas Grotesk (later renamed Helvetica). These three faces are sometimes confused with each other, because each is based on the 1896 typeface Akzidenz-Grotesk. These typefaces figure prominently in the Swiss Style of graphic design.

Different weights and variations within the type family are designated by the use of numbers rather than names, a system since adopted by Frutiger for other type designs. Frutiger envisioned a large family with multiple widths and weights that maintained a unified design idiom. However, the actual typeface names within Univers family include both number and letter suffixes.

Currently, Univers type family consists of 44 faces, with 16 uniquely numbered weight, width, position combinations. 20 fonts have oblique positions. 8 fonts support Central European character set. 8 support Cyrillic character set.

Despite the large family of widths, the @ mark is not rescaled by width.

Linotype Univers

In 1997 Frutiger reworked the whole Univers family in cooperation with Linotype, thus creating the "Linotype Univers", which consists of 63 fonts. By reworking the Univers more "extreme" weights as "Ultra Light" or "Extended Heavy" were added as well as some monospaced typefaces. The numbering system was extended to three digits to reflect the larger number of variations in the family.

In addition to extra font width and weight combinations, the fonts are digitally interpolated, so that character widths scale uniformly with changing font weights. For fonts within a specific font weight, caps height, x-height, ascender and descender heights are the same. For oblique fonts, the slope is increased from 12° to 16°, and the character widths were adjusted optically. In addition, characters such as &, ®, euro sign, are redesigned.

Linotype Univers Typewriter

It is a sub-family of fixed-width fonts under the Linotype Univers family. 4 fonts have been produced in Regular and Bold weights, with obliques on each weight. Characters such as 1, I, J, M, W, i, j, l, dotless j are drawn differently from the proportits.

The Frutiger numbering system

Adrian Frutiger designed his unique classification system to eliminate naming and specifying confusion. It was first used with Univers, and was adopted for use in the Frutiger, Avenir, and Neue Helvetica typeface families.

The number used in a font is a concatenation of 2 numbers. The first set defines weight, while the second defines width and position.

(note: oblique is not italic)

Due to some typeface manufacturers’ failure to understand and implement the system correctly, however, things have actually become more confusing. To further complicate matters, the numbering system is not consistently applied to the Univers font family. In older publications, all oblique fonts have even-numbered 2nd values; but in digital versions, both odd and even 2nd values have been used on oblique fonts, but not in all font formats or weights. For example, Univers 55 Roman Oblique has both Windows menu names and PostScript full names as "Univers LT 55 Oblique" and "Univers 56 Oblique", but only for the Windows PostScript version of the font; however, in Univers 85 Extra Black Oblique, there is no font named Univers 86 in any format. Nevertheless, oblique Univers fonts always have even-numbered 2nd value.

Inconsistent usage aside, the syntax of 2nd value is also inconsistent with 1st value. Bigger 1st value implies the glyph of a given character uses more horizontal space, but it has opposite meaning in 2nd value.

Linotype numbering system

In Linotype Univers font family, a 3-number system is used. First letter describes font weight, second letter describes font width, third letter describes position. [ [http://www.linotype.com/en/1813/linotypeunivers.html Linotype Univers 3.0] ]

Usage

Univers enjoyed great popularity in the 1960s and 1970s. It is used in a modified version by the new Swiss International Air Lines (previously, Swissair used the typeface Futura), Munich Re Group (which also uses a personalized version), Deutsche Bank and for signage all over the world. General Electric used the font from 1986 to 2004 before switching to GE Inspira [ [http://users.ncrvnet.nl/mstol/ge1986.htm "A Website about Corporate Identity", entry for GE] ] . Apple Inc. previously used this typeface as well as its condensed oblique variant for the keycaps on many of its keyboards, before completely switching to VAG Rounded in August 2007 with the introduction of new keyboards and the new iMac (their notebook computers already featured that typeface since 2001). Univers is known for its clear lines and legibility at great distances.

The Montreal Metro, San Francisco BART [ [http://typographi.com/001032.php BART Wayfinding: The Shotgun Technique] ] , Frankfurt airport and the Walt Disney World road system also make extensive use of this typeface. Some but not all London boroughs use Univers Bold Condensed for street signs [http://photo.net/philg/digiphotos/200102-e10-london/orange-street-sign.half.jpg] [http://www.minispace.co.uk/blog/images/ct-signs.jpg] . The Royal Air Force adopted the font for all merchandising material in 2006 to complement its new corporate logo. Ordnance Survey also adapted Univers for use on their maps (added tails on the lowercase l and t, and other small changes to help distinguish the type from the map details) of which they own all rights to. In 2006, the Office of Fair Trading adopted Univers as its corporate typographic voice in size 12-point so that visually impaired people can more easily read its publications.

Rand McNally once used Univers on their maps and atlases from the 1970s to 2004 when they adopted use of Frutiger.

Univers is embedded in the HP LaserJet 1100 Printer. Installing a LaserJet 1100 on a Windows system will also add several new fonts to the list, with a printer icon near their names. This icon means that the selected font is a printer font (processed by the printer), instead of a system font (processed and rasterized by the system, such as a TrueType or OpenType typeface).

Frutiger (with Howard "Bud" Kettler [cite book
last = Macmillan
first = Neil
title = An A-Z of Type Designers
accessdate = 2007-12-12
year = 2006
publisher = Laurence King Publishing
isbn = 1856693953
pages = p. 118 ] ) adapted [cite web
url = http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/rd/121/ibmrd1201D.pdf
title = The IBM Selectric Composer: The Evolution of Composition Technology
journal = IBM JOurnal of Research and Development
accessdate = 2007-12-12
last = Frutiger
first = Adrian
authorlink = Adrian Frutiger
date = 1967-02-27
format = PDF
publisher = IBM
pages = pp. 12–14 ] Univers for the 9-unit escapement system on the IBM Selectric Composer widely used for in-house typesetting in the 1960-70s.

Univers 45, 55, 65, 57, 67, 53, 63 are incorporated in PostScript standard as PostScript 3 core fonts.

Audi Sans is a variant based on Univers [ [http://www.linotype.com/en/1597/adsrecreation.html Ads/Recreation] ] , designed by Ole Schäfer. [ [http://www.primetype.com/home_profile.php?p=1 primetype.com: Ole Schäfer] ] It became Audi's corporate identity font in 1990s [Neil Macmillan. "An A-Z of Type Designers", p29-30. 2006. King Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-85669-395-3/ISBN 1 85669 395 3] , when Audi contracted MetaDesign to support Audi's brand management strategy. [ [http://www.metadesign.de/html/en/2310.html MetaDesign :: Customers :: Cases :: Audi] ]

Comparison with Akzidenz-Grotesk, Folio, and Helvetica

Differences between Univers and the two other fonts include:
*The tail of 'a' and the top of '1' are much less rounded.
*'G' is formed without an arrow head (called a "spur").
*The arms of 'K' join at the stem.
*The tail of 'Q' runs along the baseline.
*The tail of 'R' is curved (compared with Akzidenz-Grotesk).
*The top of 't' is angled.
*'Y' has a straight descender.

References

External links

* [http://typophile.com/wiki/Univers Typowiki: Univers]
* [http://www.linotype.com/en/1813-15552/podiumdiscussionuniversisaclassicaltypeface.html Podium discussion: Univers is a classical typeface]