Frutiger

Frutiger
Category Humanist Sans-serif
Designer(s) Adrian Frutiger
Foundry Linotype
Date released 1975
Variations Frutiger Next

Frutiger (pronounced with a hard g) is a series of typefaces named after its designer, Adrian Frutiger. Initially available as a sans serif, it was later expanded to include ornamental and serif typefaces.

Contents

Distinctive characteristics

Characteristics of this typeface are:

lower case: square dot over the letter i. double storey a.

upper case: the capital Q's tail is centered under the figure, the uppercase J has a slight hook, and there are two versions of uppercase R, one with a straight tail and one with a curved tail.

figures:

History

Frutiger is a sans-serif typeface by the Swiss type designer Adrian Frutiger. It was commissioned in 1968 by the newly built Charles De Gaulle International Airport at Roissy, France, which needed a new directional sign system. Instead of using one of his previously designed typefaces like Univers, Frutiger chose to design a new one. The new typeface, originally called Roissy, was completed in 1975 and installed at the airport the same year.

Frutiger's goal was to create a sans serif typeface with the rationality and cleanliness of Univers, but with the organic and proportional aspects of Gill Sans. The result is that Frutiger is a distinctive and legible typeface. The letter properties were suited to the needs of Charles De Gaulle – modern appearance and legibility at various angles, sizes, and distances. Ascenders and descenders are very prominent, and apertures are wide to easily distinguish letters from each other.

The Frutiger family was released publicly in 1976, by the Stempel type foundry in conjunction with Linotype. Frutiger's simple and legible, yet warm and casual character has made it popular today in advertising and small print. Some major uses of Frutiger are in the corporate identity of Raytheon, the National Health Service in England, Telefónica O2, the British Royal Navy, the London School of Economics and Political Science, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Conservative Party of Canada, the Banco Bradesco in Brazil, the Finnish Defence Forces and on road signs in Switzerland. The typeface has also been used across the public transport network in Oslo, Norway, since the 1980s. In 2008 it was the fifth best-selling typeface of the Linotype foundry.[1]

Frutiger is also used by DHL Globally and by DPWN Deutsche Post in Germany.

Frutiger was also produced by Bitstream under the name 'Humanist 777'.

Frutiger Linotype

This is a version of the original Frutiger font family licensed to Microsoft. This family consists of Frutiger 55, 56, 65, 66. It does not include OpenType features and kerning, but it adds support to Latin Extended-B and Greek characters, with Frutiger 55 supporting extra IPA characters, spacing modifier letters. Unlike most Frutiger variants Frutiger Linotype features old style figures as the default numeral style.

Frutiger Linotype can be found in Microsoft products featuring Microsoft Reader, as well as the standalone Microsoft Reader package.

ASTRA-Frutiger

This is a variant of Frutiger used by Swiss authorities as the new font for traffic signs, replacing VSS since 2003.[2] It was based on Frutiger 57 Condensed, but with widening ascenders and descenders, which are intended to give the eye a better hold than was the case with the earlier version.

A family of two fonts were made, called ASTRA-Frutiger-Standard/standard, and ASTRA-Frutiger-Autobahn/autoroute.

Frutiger Next

The Frutiger family was updated in 1997 for signage at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. The new version, named Frutiger Next, changed a number of details and adds a true italic style in place of the oblique roman of the original.

Frutiger Next was commercially available in 2000 under Linotype. The family include 6 font weights, with bonus Ultra Light weight for the OpenType version. It supports ISO Adobe 2, Adobe CE, Latin Extended characters. OpenType features include small caps, old style figures, superscript/subscript, ordinals, proportional lining figures, case forms. Fonts names are no longer numbered with the Frutiger system. Frutiger Black was renamed to Frutiger Next Heavy, and Frutiger Ultra Black was changed to Frutiger Next Black. Condensed fonts no longer include italic variants. In addition to italic type, characters such as cent sign (¢), copyright symbol (©), ampersand (&), at sign (@), sharp S (ß), Omega (Ω) and integral symbol (∫) are redesigned. Cyrillic letters had not been produced until Frutiger Next W1G.

Frutiger Next Greek (2005)

This is a variant of Frutiger Next designed with Eva Masoura for Linotype, originally published as a TDC2 2006 entry.

Frutiger Next W1G (2009)

This is an expanded version of Frutiger Next W1G. It added Greek (from Frutiger Next Greek) and Cyrillic character sets, but advertised OpenType features were reduced to superscript/subscript. Only OpenType version has been produced.

Frutiger Stones (1998)

This is a family of casual fonts inspired by natural elements. Using polished pebbles as the boundary, the family consists of Regular, Positive, Negative fonts. Frutiger Stones Positive is Regular without the stone outline, while Negative is a reverse fill of the Regular.

Frutiger Symbols (1998)

This is a family of symbol fonts. The fonts contain plants, animals and stars as well as religious and mythological symbols. Naming convention follows Frutiger Stones.

Frutiger Capitalis (2005)

This is a family of casual fonts consists of Regular, Outline, Signs fonts. Frutiger Capitalis Outline is the outline version of Frutiger Capitalis Regular. Frutiger Capitalis contains only ornamental glyphs of religions, hand signs, astrological signs.

Frutiger Arabic (2007)

This is a font family designed by Lebanese designer Nadine Chahine as a companion to the Latin typeface Frutiger and with the consulting of Adrian Frutiger. It is based on the Kufi style but incorporates aspects of Ruqaa and Naskh in the letter form designs, which results in what Linotype called 'humanist Kufi'. The fonts consist of Basic Latin and ISO-Latin characters derived from the original Frutiger family, with Arabic characters supporting presentation forms A and B. 4 font weights were produced.

Frutiger Serif (2008)

This is a serif font family designed by Adrian Frutiger and Akira Kobayashi. It is a re-envisioning of the metal type version of Meridien, a typeface first released by Deberny & Peignot during the 1950s.

The family consists of roman and italic fonts in 5 weights and 2 widths each.

Neue Frutiger (2009)

This is an expanded version of the original Frutiger family designed by Adrian Frutiger and Akira Kobayashi. Unlike the original family, the Frutiger numbering scheme is not used.

The family has 20 fonts in 10 weights and 1 width, with complementary oblique. It supports ISO Adobe, Adobe CE, Latin Extended characters. OpenType features include subscript/superscript.

Similar types

Adobe's Myriad and Microsoft's Segoe UI are two prominent typefaces whose similarities to Frutiger have aroused controversy. However, in an interview, Adrian Frutiger commended the work of Myriad's designer, Robert Slimbach, "except the unnecessary doubt concerning Myriad, his work is also very good."[3]

Others include:

Awards

Frutiger Next won buvka:raz! competition under the Latin category.[6]

Frutiger Next Greek won the TDC2 2006 award under the Type System / Superfamily category.[7]

Frutiger in branding

The National Health Service in the UK currently uses the Frutiger font as its standard typeface.[8]

Brunel's ss Great Britain uses Frutiger as its official sans serif based typeface along with Trajan as a serif based font for branding.

Cornell University uses Frutiger as its secondary typeface, along with Palatino.[9]

Xavier University uses Frutiger as its official typeface along with Bembo.

The University of Southern California uses Frutiger as its official typeface along with Caslon 540.[10]

Ohio University uses Frutiger as its official typeface along with Galliard.[11]

Temple University uses Frutiger as its official typeface along with Goudy (and Garamond for body text correspondence).

Central Washington University uses Frutiger as its official typeface along with Hoefler Text.

Claremont McKenna College uses Frutiger as its official typeface along with Janson.

Emmanuel College and the University of Massachusetts Amherst with its sister Dartmouth and Lowell (but not Boston) use Frutiger as its official typeface along with Sabon.

The University of Lausanne uses Frutiger as its official typeface. [12]

The University of Iceland uses Frutiger as its official typeface.[13]

The Connexions (agency) in the UK also uses Frutiger as its official typeface [14]

The Finnish Defence Forces uses Frutiger as its official typeface [15]

The Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants in the Hong Kong also uses Frutiger as its official typeface[16]

The Citizens Advice service uses Frutiger as its official typeface.[17]

The London school of Economics service uses Frutiger as its official typeface.[18]

The University of Miami uses Frutiger (Linotype) as its primary sans serif typeface. [19]

Bay Area Rapid Transit, a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area, uses Frutiger for all signage. [20]

Arriva uses Frutiger as its official typeface.

Kieser Training AG and Kieser Training Australia also use Frutiger as its official typeface.[21]

CDI Corporation uses Frutiger as its official typeface, according to the CDI Identity Guide.

The ETAS Group uses Frutiger LT as its official typeface.

The British band Muse (band) use Frutiger in their band logo.

Schindler Group uses Frutiger as part of their brand. Company name is in Frutiger in the official website.

Lucent Technologies used Frutiger in their logo.[22]

The U.S. National Park Service uses Frutiger as one of two fonts across the entire agency. [23]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Best-Selling Fonts of 2008 - Linotype Font Feature". Linotype.com. 2010-05-26. http://www.linotype.com/5713/bestsellingfontsof2008.html. Retrieved 2011-03-10. 
  2. ^ "Frutiger honored with SOTA award". Microsoft.com. http://www.microsoft.com/typography/links/news.aspx?NID=5701. Retrieved 2011-03-10. 
  3. ^ TYPO - Frutiger
  4. ^ "M+ 2p, regular". Abstract Fonts. http://www.abstractfonts.com/font/11617. Retrieved 2011-03-10. 
  5. ^ "フォーラム: M+ Outline Fonts - - M+ Fonts" (in (Japanese)). SourceForge.JP. http://sourceforge.jp/forum/forum.php?forum_id=3403. Retrieved 2011-03-10. 
  6. ^ "United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations". Tdc.org. http://www.tdc.org/news/2001bukvaresults.html. Retrieved 2011-03-10. 
  7. ^ "TDC2 2006 : Winning Entries". Tdc.org. http://www.tdc.org/news/2006Results/index.html. Retrieved 2011-03-10. 
  8. ^ "The NHS typefaces". Nhsidentity.nhs.uk. http://www.nhsidentity.nhs.uk/all-guidelines/guidelines/primary-care-trusts-new-guidance/nhs-typefaces. Retrieved 2011-03-10. 
  9. ^ ["Cornell University Style Guide". cornell.edu. http://cornelllogo.cornell.edu/print/style_guide.pdf. Retrieved 2011-05-11. 
  10. ^ "USC Graphic Identity Program : Web Branding : Web Colors and Typefaces". Usc.edu. http://www.usc.edu/identity/web_branding/web_colors_and_fonts.html. Retrieved 2011-03-10. 
  11. ^ "OHIO: Compass | Branding OHIO". Ohio.edu. http://www.ohio.edu/compass/stories/10-11/2/branding-ohio-text-type.cfm. Retrieved 2011-03-10. 
  12. ^ "UNIL Logo - Mode d'emploi". Unil.ch. http://www.unil.ch/logo/page25396.html. Retrieved 2011-03-10. 
  13. ^ http://www.hi.is/files/skjol/stjornsysla/markads_og_samskiptasvid/honnunarstadall/HSK_43133_H__nnunarstadall_profork130109.pdf
  14. ^ http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/_download/?id=631
  15. ^ "Puolustusvoimat" (in (Finnish)). Mil.fi. http://www.mil.fi/images/hd_tunnus_puolustusvoimat.gif. Retrieved 2011-03-10. 
  16. ^ "HKICPA Overview". http://app1.hkicpa.org.hk/about_us/Info_ENG100329.pdf.  (document uses Frutiger throughout)
  17. ^ "CABlink login page". Cablink.org.uk. http://www.cablink.org.uk/house_style_basics_for_citizens_advice_staff_1_jan_09.pdf. Retrieved 2011-03-10. 
  18. ^ "LSE style guidelines - Information for staff - News - Staff and students - Home". .lse.ac.uk. 2010-04-23. http://www2.lse.ac.uk/intranet/news/informationForStaff/Style_Guide.aspx#generated-subheading1. Retrieved 2011-03-10. 
  19. ^ "UM Visual Identity Guidelines: Typefaces and Fonts". .miami.edu. http://www7.miami.edu/ftp/umidentity/web_fonts.html. Retrieved 2011-03-10. 
  20. ^ "New signs at downtown SF stations part of ongoing BART wayfinding improvements". bart.gov. 2010-11-17. http://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2010/news20101117.aspx. Retrieved 2011-04-04. 
  21. ^ "Kieser Training Australia | We grow on resistance". Kieser-training.com.au. 2009-10-21. http://www.kieser-training.com.au. Retrieved 2011-03-10. 
  22. ^ "Corporate Identity: Lucent". ncrv.nl. http://users.ncrvnet.nl/mstol/lucent.html. Retrieved 2011-09-08. 
  23. ^ "Park-Produced Publications: Typography". National Park Service. http://www.nps.gov/hfc/products/pubs/pubs-sb-06.htm. Retrieved 3 November 2011. 

Bibliography

External links