Parisine

Parisine is a typeface developed by Jean-François Porchez.

It is used in Paris Métro, tramways, busses and RER parts operated by the RATP in Île-de-France.

Parisine

Infobox font
name = Parisine


style = Sans-serif
date = 1996
creator = Jean-François Porchez
foundry = Porchez Typofonderie
sample = It was originally developed in 1996 as a custom typeface developed for the RATP to improve signage legibility and space economy. The design was based on Helvetica Bold, condensed at 90%.

In 1999, the font was extended to a font family for multiple uses like communication material, maps, etc. In 2000, hinted TrueType versions were added for internal corporate use. The name Parisine is a trademark of the RATP.

Parisine Std

It is an OpenType variant of Parisine. A small caps version was produced called Parisine SC.

OpenType features include ligatures, fractions, ordinals/superior letters and figures, caps figures, oldstyle figures (SC versions only), an tabular figures.

Parisine PTF

It is an OpenType variant of Parisine, which further expanded upon Parisine Std.

Each member of the family is composed of more than 720 glyphs and feature around 26700 kerning pairs.

OpenType features include small caps, case forms, ligatures, special ligatures, alternates, stylistic sets, caps figures, oldstyle figures, tabular figures, fractions, superscript/subscript, superior/inferior figures, ordinals/superior letters and figures, and ornaments.

Parisine Plus Std

It is a variant with alternate designs. It includes extra ligatures over the respective classic designs.

Some additional alternates glyphs are included in PostScript Type 1 format.

OpenType features include ligatures, fractions, ordinals/superior letters and figures, caps figures, oldstyle figures (SC versions only), and tabular figures.

Parisine Plus PTF

It is an expanded OpenType variant of Parisine Plus Std. It was released at the same time as Parisine Ptf.

Each member of the family is composed of more than 900 glyphs and feature around 40000 kerning pairs.

OpenType features include small caps, case forms, ligatures, special ligatures, alternates, stylistic sets, swashes, caps figures, oldstyle figures, tabular figures, fractions, superscript/subscript, superior/inferior figures, ordinals/superior letters and figures, and ornaments.

Parisine Office

It was a version created for RATP in 2005, as replacement of Gill Sans. It became the first variant designed in OpenType. The font was commercially available in June 2008.

It consists of over 600 characters, and is metric-compatible with Gill Sans.

OpenType features include case forms, ligatures special ligatures, alternates, swashes, caps figures, oldstyle figures, semi oldstyle figures, tabular figures, fractions, superscript/subscript, superior/inferior figures, ordinals/superior letters and figures, and ornaments.

Family naming convention

With exception of Parisine SC and Parisine Office, each family contains 6 weights with complementary italics, but it is further divided into 3 subfamily, where the subfamily with Clair suffix includes 2 lightest weights, Sombre suffix includes 2 heaviest weights, subfamily without suffix includes 2 middle weights. Fonts in each subfamily are always named Regular, Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, regardless of actual font weights across the family.

Awards

Parisine Office won a Star of the Observeur 07 at the Design Observeur 07 (Observeur du design 07). [Identifont: [http://www.identifont.com/show?14S Jean-François Porchez] ] [ [http://www.apci.asso.fr/l_observeur_uk/realisation.php?id=1432&laureats=2007&id_participant=1302 ] ]

ee also

* List of public signage typefaces

External links

* [http://www.typofonderie.com/alphabets/view/Parisine/?lang=en Porchez Typofonderie: Parisine]
* [http://www.typofonderie.com/alphabets/view/ParisinePlus/?lang=en Porchez Typofonderie: Parisine Plus]
* [http://www.typofonderie.com/alphabets/view/ParisineOffice/?lang=en Porchez Typofonderie: Parisine Office]
* [http://www.svettisku.cz/buxus/generate_page.php?page_id=383 Métro Type] , history behind the font
* [http://www.typofonderie.com/gazette/articles/parisine Le Parisine, une typo parisienne] covers history of Parisine

References