FF Scala

The FF Scala is one of the Dutch type designer Martin Majoor designed font family group consisting of the individual based on the same principle of form families FF Scala and FF Scala Sans is. The font is part of the FontFont library from FSI FontShop International .

Emergence

Martin Majoor started designing the Scala in 1987. At that time he was working as a graphic designer for the Vredenburg Music Center in Utrecht , which was one of the first offices to work with DTP systems. None of the 16 existing PostScript fonts available to him contained old style figures , small caps or ligatures , which he however needed for his work. He decided to create his own font for his employer that would meet his requirements.

He named the font after the famous Teatro alla Scala opera house in Milan . Three reasons were decisive for this: the concert hall of his employer, which was very active at the time for opera performances, the historical roots of the famous model, which, like those of his script, reach into the 18th century, and the wider meaning of the word Scala (spectrum). With this, Majoor wanted to point out the scope of the font family, which includes both an antiqua and a sans serif version, each in font weights from light to black, and is suitable for both formal and decorative typographic design tasks.

FF Scala

Font example from FF Scala

FF Scala is a serif-based Renaissance Antiqua that was published in 1990 as the first text font of the newly founded FontFont label and has since been expanded, most recently as part of the OpenType conversion. Like many contemporary Dutch antiquas, it is not a revival of a single historical typeface, but rather shows influences from various models. Martin Majoor's design was influenced by humanistic fonts like Bembo and the fonts of the French typographer Pierre Simon Fournier of the mid-18th century. In contrast to these models, however, he tried to use a weaker contrast and stronger serifs, since in his opinion most PostScript fonts were too thin. The roots of italics FF Scala are even older origin, they are inspired by works of the Italian type designer Ludovico degli Arrighi Vicentino (1475-1527).

FF Scala Sans

Font example from FF Scala Sans

FF Scala Sans is a humanistic (dynamic) sans serif linear antiqua with Renaissance character, which was published in 1993 as a counterpart to the serif version. During the design, the end lines of the FF scale were cut off and their contrast adjusted. It is still based on the same basic shape, so that both families can be used well in combination. This made the font family very popular with graphic designers and typesetters and ensured widespread use, as there were few digitally available families that were so well developed and optimized for digital typesetting. The FF Scala Sans also has real small caps, various figure shapes and numerous ligatures.

In 1997, a special decorative form of capital letters was published, the FF Scala Jewels . It is influenced by Dutch decorative capital letters from the Baroque period.

Application examples

The FF Scala is used in many ways. Because both font families can be combined with one another and with other fonts, it is particularly often used as a corporate font . So she is z. B. the

Corporate typeface of the Humboldt University of Berlin
Corporate font of the city of Lauscha
Corporate font of the Danish municipality of Gladsaxe
House font of the Norwegian University of Environmental and Life Sciences
House font of the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy

House font of the Johnson School at Cornell University

Typeface of BBBank

Corporate typeface for Deutschlandradio

Font of the national Dutch daily newspaper AD

literature

Lupton, Ellen. Graphic Design and Typography in the Netherlands: A View of Recent Work. Princeton Architectural Press: 1992. ISBN 1-878271-62-8 .
Friedl, Frederich, Nicholas Ott and Bernard Stein. Typography: An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Through History. Black Dog & Leventhal: 1998. ISBN 1-57912-023-7 .
Bringhurst, Robert. The Elements of Typographic Style. Hartley & Marks: 1992. ISBN 0-88179-033-8 .
Middendorp, Jan: Dutch Type , 010 Publishers: 2004, ISBN 978-90-6450-460-0
Lupton, Ellen. Thinking with Type: A critical guide for designers, writers, editors, & students. Princeton Architectural Press: 2004. ISBN 1-56898-448-0 .
Spiekermann, Erik; Middendorp, Jan: Made with FontFont , Book Industry Services (BIS): 2006, ISBN 978-9063691295
Thi Truong, Mai-Linh; Siebert, Jürgen; Spiekermann, Erik: FontBook - Digital Typeface Compendium , FSI FontShop International: 2006, ISBN 978-3930023042