Univers
39 Thin Ultra Condensed
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You need JavaScript enabled and the latest version of Flash Player to see this type sample.Credits
- Designer(s)
- Add
- Foundry(ies)
- Deberny & Peignot , Linotype
- Release Year
- 1957
- Country of Origin
- Switzerland
- Classification
- Sans Serif, Grotesk
- Original Format
- Metal (Machine Composition)
- Tags
- frutiger, helvetica, neo-grotesque, sans serif
Background
As a student in Zurich, Adrian Frutiger began work on Univers, which would eventually be released in 1957 by the Deberny & Peignot foundry in Paris. The design is a neo-grotesque, similar to its contemporary, Helvetica. With the release of Univers, Frutiger began using numbers rather than names to designate variations of weight, width, and slope. The full Univers family consists of twenty-one typefaces, and Frutiger has used this numerical system on other designs, including Serifa and Frutiger. Linotype also has adopted this numerical system for many other faces. All twenty-one Univers faces were designed to work together, so they can be mixed in a variety of ways. Their legibility lends itself to a large variety of applications, from text and headlines to packaging and signage.
Univers is one of a group of neo-grotesque sans-serif typefaces, all released in 1957, 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.
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.
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