FF Meta

FF Meta is a designed by Erik Spiekermann and published in the FontFont library digital font. It is one of the most famous contemporary writings and is in the group of ( humanist ) sans serif linear antiqua or dynamic grotesque classified ( according to Hans Peter Willenberg and Indra copper Schmid).

Origin and character

The Berlin office of the London-based design agency Sedley Place Design 1985 should develop a corporate design for the German Federal Post Office, and it became clear that the Helvetica typeface as used previously was no match for many requirements. There was no writing that met the criteria for a new typeface, were of Spiekermann several existing families (among Polo, syntax, News Gothic and Akzidenz Grotesk ) analyzed and appropriate features in the new design, under the name " PT 55 was created, " taken.

The scalloped paint and the comparatively small proportion of the capital letters come for example from the Letter Gothic; the beveled and partly slightly curved upper degrees to the vertical in small letters and a similar g is also found in the Polo GST, which had developed Georg Salden from 1972 to 1976. Other features include a more generous spacing and round points at i and j. One of the main design principle of meta is the contrast between light squared indoor and outdoor oval contours.

Particular emphasis was placed on the distinct height of all letters, the lowercase letter l has (as in "long") a bow, to distinguish it better from the capital letter I (as in "India " ) can.

The Post decided in 1986 in the short term but for the maintenance of Helvetica, and the meta was digitized in 1991 with the Ikarus M program on the Macintosh and released as FF Meta font in the Font typeface library of FSI FontShop International. Is named the font after the design agency MetaDesign, founded among others by Erik Spiekermann and their corporate typeface FF Meta was long.

The font exists both in width and Condensed Normal in the five weights of normal, Book, Medium, Bold and Black, each with small caps and matching italics, have in numerous letters a corresponding italic form. Both old style figures and lining figures are available. Over time, the FF Meta was repeatedly introduced language extensions. So it is available, inter alia, with Greek and Cyrillic characters. The fats degrees were expanded. In the line widths Hairline, Thin and Light, there are so far only the upright sections of the FF Meta.

Since mid-2005 is consistent with the FF Meta Headline a variant of the FF Meta is available that has been specifically developed for use in large sizes and has a much smoother typeface with less curves. They are available in weights: Light, Regular, Bold and Black. There is also the FF Meta Correspondence, which has a larger spacing and is intended for the use of correspondence.

Since October 2007, the FF Meta Serif, Serif FF Meta one that is tuned in central length and thickness with the sans serif FF Meta, available in the distribution of FontShop AG. Erik Spiekermann worked for this purpose together with the type designers Christian Schwartz and Kris Sowersby the expansion of the font family.

Importance

Originally designed for legibility at small font sizes, it has found widespread use in the 1990s in magazines and signage. FF Meta Currently, among other typeface of the WDR, the AVM GmbH, the Mozilla Foundation, the Japanese car brand Infiniti, the University of Paderborn, BHT Berlin and many others. Since 10 April 2007, the publication also by ORF is used for screen content.

The FF Meta Web was the first commercial font used in the new web font format WOFF. The Mozilla Foundation acquired the occasion of the publication of the first browser that supported this format (Firefox 3.6), a special license for the corresponding site of the browser.

The FF Meta is now next to the classic Helvetica font as the most successful of the nineties and early 2000s.

Classification of Scripture

  • According to DIN 16518 to categorize the FF Meta in a group VIb ( Sans serif linear antiqua with Renaissance character ).
  • Hans Peter Willenberg would classify them in his classification matrix as a dynamic Grotesk.
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