DIN 1451

In the DIN standard DIN 1451 in 1931, first as a preliminary standard, standardized from 1936 as the so-called standard DIN font for the areas of technology and transport. She is best known to the general public of local, highway, railway and other (mostly official ) signs. For many years it took for German license plate use until it was replaced on 1 November 2000 by the VU script.

History

The writing goes back to the Prussian pattern drawing IV 44 of 1906, which was normalized by the Prussian state railways for labels of rail vehicles. The engineer Ludwig Goller (1884-1964), an employee of the company Siemens was, from 1925 as chairman of the DIN committee responsible for drawings for the development of the standard. Although it was primarily their legibility in the foreground, but all the bars should have the same thickness, which is in contradiction to the traditional typography. The DIN 1451 comprised at the time of the first publication in 1931, the fonts Engschrift, medium font and double-width type.

About the 1970 amended version of the Highway Code, the typographic rules were only relatively coarse focus. The standard font DIN 1451 in her expression remained continuously in use. This changed in 1980, when some numeric characters and characters were changed in order to achieve a better readability. In addition, we developed concepts for a more careful kerning design. Here, too, was the point of view of improved readability in the foreground. The wide font was no longer included in the new version of the standard. She is now only rarely, eg on older place and street signs with short names and postal stamps for the postal code.

Use outside Germany

In transport, the writing - often slightly modified - used except in Germany, inter alia, in Greece ( highway signs ) as well as in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. In Austria its own official standard font (Eng and medium font Austria ) was applied until 2011, which is modified from the DIN 1451.

Variants

German Bahn AG

The German Bahn AG used today - as before the German Federal Railroad - Technical inscriptions on the rail vehicles, the font according to DIN 1451-4, with a few characters have been modified. So another t- character or space content was prescribed another l-characters in liters as in flowing text for a weight in tons. Since in a font but always outputs a character shape per letter is only possible, only the "t" and "l" as in tons and liters is commonly used, with the "t" differs from the DIN 1451-4.

The fonts bold Eng and medium font of DIN 1451-4 are fonts that are made up of rasters. When Engschrift most characters are three grid wide and seven grid high. When Mittelschrift almost all characters are four grid wide and seven grid high. The line width is always a grid; Curves are about 0.1 grid. Thus, for example, in a font size of 70, the "B" 70 mm high and 30 mm wide. A "0" (zero) - as it is around the top and bottom - 72 mm high and 30 mm wide. Wherein writing means, the width is 40 mm. The clearance to the next character is again a grid width, and a space is also to be used with three or four notch widths.

In loco numbers in Scripture means there is a peculiarity in the number " 1" because here the corresponding character of Engschrift used.

The formats of DIN 1451-4 are not available as a font file on the market. Any font files named Engschrift fat and fat of appeal relate more to the DIN 1451-3, which corresponds to the fonts described above, or is similar to it. Since the fonts are not available, only related fonts are mapped even in the drawings of DB AG mostly. In the comments to subscribe to the DIN 1451 and DIN 1451 G for Engschrift H is then referenced for means record and its text height. Select the standard font sizes are used for most addresses; these are 10, 16, 20, 25, 30, 32, 35, 40, 50, 60, 63, 80, 100 and 125 mm.

Berthold - DIN

From Berthold type foundry in 1981 developed under the artistic director Günther Gerhard Lange DIN means writing and the DIN Engschrift for phototypesetting. From the late 1980s it was used by designers and more frequently, although it does not correspond to the classical rules of typography.

German Post AG

The German Post AG used today - as before the German Federal Post Office - for their postmark the Eng -, medium- and double-width type according to DIN 1451, where the digits were 3, 6 and 9 modified to avoid confusion. The date is the Engschrift, uses the broad heading for the place name which means writing, and for the zip code.

FF DIN

For desktop publishing has been offered since 1995 by FSI FontShop International for a more typefaces developed by the font designer Albert -Jan Pool and typographically optimized " FF DIN ". In the "FF DIN " the horizontal bars are thinner than vertical as opposed to the previous DIN font - the principle of consistent line width was therefore abandoned - and the transitions of circles on straight lines were harmonized. It was at this development a large family, which first contained even true italics, equally developed Condensed versions as well as a much larger character set and language development. Although there is a discussion of the aesthetics of the DIN 1451 among designers, especially the FF DIN is often used in graphic design and advertising, for example, from companies such as Nike, Adidas, Yello Strom, Toyota and Jaguar.

Linotype DIN

From the Linotype type foundry there for some years a "DIN Next".

Comparison

Mittelschrift

Wide font

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