FF Meta

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Text sample of the FF Meta

FF Meta is a digital font designed by Erik Spiekermann and published in the FontFont library . It is one of the most famous contemporary typefaces and belongs to the group of (humanistic) sans serif linear antiqua or dynamic grotesques (after Hans Peter Willberg and Indra Kupferschmid ).

Origin and character

The Berlin office of the London design agency Sedley Place Design was supposed to develop a corporate design for the Deutsche Bundespost in 1985 , whereby it became clear that the Helvetica , which had been used as a corporate typeface, was not up to many requirements. Since there was no typeface that met the criteria for a new corporate typeface, Spiekermann analyzed several existing typeface families (including Polo, Syntax, News Gothic and Akzidenz Grotesk) and incorporated suitable features into the new design, which was named "PT 55" was created.

The curved paintwork and the comparatively narrow proportions of the capital letters come from Letter Gothic , for example ; The beveled and sometimes slightly curved upper ends of the vertical in lowercase letters and a similar g can also be found on the Polo GST , which Georg Salden developed from 1972 to 1976. Further features are a rather generous spacing and round dots at i and j. A main design principle of Meta is the contrast between slightly angular interiors and oval outer contours.

Special emphasis was placed on the good distinguishability of all letters, so the lower case letter l (as in "long") has an arc to better distinguish it from the capital letter I (as in "India").

In 1986, Swiss Post decided at short notice to keep Helvetica , and it was not until 1991 that the Meta was digitized using the Ikarus M program on the Macintosh and published as FF Meta in the FontFont font library of FSI FontShop International . The font is named after the design agency MetaDesign , which was founded by Erik Spiekermann and others and whose corporate font was FF Meta for a long time.

The font is available in both normal and condensed widths in the five weights Normal, Book, Medium, Bold and Black, each with small caps and matching italics , with numerous letters in a corresponding italic form. Both old style and uppercase figures are available. In the course of time, the FF Meta has been expanded to include language extensions. So she is u. a. also available with Greek and Cyrillic characters. The fat levels have also been expanded. In the hairline, thin and light weights, only the upright styles of the FF Meta are available so far.

A variant of the FF Meta has been available since mid-2005 with the FF Meta Headline , which was specially developed for use in large font sizes and has a much calmer typeface with fewer curves. They are available in light, regular, bold and black weights. There is also the FF Meta Correspondence , which has a wider range and is intended for use in correspondence.

The FF Meta Serif , a serif version of the FF Meta, which is matched to the sans serif FF Meta in medium length and line width, has been available from FontShop AG since October 2007 . Erik Spiekermann worked with the typeface designers Christian Schwartz and Kris Sowersby to expand the typeface family .

meaning

Originally conceived for good readability with small font sizes , it was widely used in magazines and signage in the 1990s. At the moment, FF Meta is the corporate font of WDR , AVM GmbH , Mozilla Foundation , Japanese car brand Infiniti , Heidelberg University Hospital , Paderborn University , BHT Berlin and many others. Since April 10, 2007, the font has also been used by the ORF for screen content.

The FF Meta Web was the first font used commercially in the new web font format WOFF . The Mozilla Foundation acquired a special license for the browser's website when the first browser was released to support this format ( Firefox 3.6).

The FF Meta is now considered the most successful typeface of the 1990s and early 2000s alongside the classic Helvetica.

Classification of the script

  • According to DIN 16518 , FF Meta is categorized in group VIb (sans serif linear antiqua with Renaissance character) .
  • Hans Peter Willberg would classify it as a dynamic grotesque in his classification matrix.

literature

  • Spiekermann, Erik; Middendorp, Jan: Made with FontFont , Book Industry Services (BIS): 2006, ISBN 978-90-6369-129-5

swell

  1. ↑ The rumor that Meta is a copy of Polo
  2. ↑ "Made With FontFont" ed. by Jan Middendorp and Erik Spiekermann (2006) at BIS Publishers, Amsterdam, ISBN 978-90-6369-129-5 , pp. 20-23
  3. ↑ 100 Best Fonts: Letter Gothic  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.100besteschriften.de  
  4. ↑ FF Meta Serif in the distribution of FontShop AG
  5. ↑ Corporate Design Manual of the WDR ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Styleguide Mozilla ( Memento of the original from September 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / people.mozilla.com
  7. ↑ CD manual of the University of Paderborn  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 572 kB)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.uni-paderborn.de  
  8. ↑ Style guide for BHT Berlin
  9. ↑ http://www.fontshop.com/fonts/downloads/fontfont/ff_meta_web_pro/ FF Meta Web on FontShop
  10. ↑ http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.6/firstrun/ Mozilla Firefox 3.6 website with FF Meta Web

Web links