Maxima (font)

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The Maxima font family was designed by the German type designer Gert Wunderlich and, along with the Super Grotesk, is considered the most frequently used font in the GDR . The font was widely used in the former socialist countries of the Eastern Bloc .

Origin and use

The Maxima was created in the 1960s as a sans serif sans serif for VEB Typoart. In the GDR the printing industry did not want to be dependent on western manufacturers. The state-owned companies were called upon to create their own printing technologies. The Maxima was created as a socialist alternative to the Univers and Helvetica fonts . The success of the Maxima led to the Maxima becoming the most extensive font family of the VEB Typoart. The Maxima enjoys a good reputation among typographers and has also been developed for Cyrillic and Greek. Karl-Heinz Lange subsequently created the minimums for telephone books and instructions for use .

Awards

  • 1971: 1st prize in the type font competition of the Comecon countries for the design of the font "Maxima"

Classification of the script

  • According to DIN 16518 , Univers is categorized in group VIa (sans serif linear antiqua with a classicistic character)
  • Hans Peter Willberg would classify it as static grotesque in his classification matrix

Variants of the maxima

Electronic font production by Typoart Dresden:

  • Maxima, lean. 1963/1964. Lead type, 6-48 p. 1969. Photosetting 1981.
  • Maxima, lean italic. 1963/1964. Lead type, 6-48 p. 1966. Phototypesetting, 1987.
  • Maxima, semi-bold. 1963/1964. Lead type, 6-48 p. 1966. Photosetting 1981.
  • Maxima Cyrillic, lean. 1964. Bleisatz, 1973. Photo typesetting, 1982. Collaboration with Hans-Peter Greinke.
  • Maxima Cyrillic, lean italic. 1964. Metal type sample, 1973. Photo typesetting 1982.
  • Maxima Cyrillic, semi-bold. 1964. Metal type sample, 1973. Photo typesetting, 1982.
  • Maxima-Cyrillic, bold italic. 1964. Phototypesetting, 1983.
  • Maxima, tender. Latin index of figures for all versions of this font family (uppercase, lowercase, ligatures, dots, uppercase and lowercase figures, fractional figures, characters) 1979/1981.
  • Maxima small caps, delicate. 1979/1986
  • Maxima, narrow semi-bold. 1979/1982.
  • Maxima, narrow bold. 1979/1983.
  • Maxima, bold. 1979/1981.
  • Maxima, narrow lean. 1979/1985.
  • Maxima, extra bold. 1979/1987.
  • Maxima Cyrillic, special characters lean. 1982. Additions in lean italics, semi-bold, semi-bold italics.
  • Maxima-Cyrillic, semi-bold, with special figures. Designed in 1982.
  • Maxima-Greek, lean. 1983/1985. Collaboration with Fritz Richter.
  • Maxima-Greek, italic. 1983/1985. Collaboration with Fritz Richter.
  • Maxima-Greek, semi-bold. 1983/1985. Collaboration with Fritz Richter.
  • Maxima, light shaded. 1984. Collaboration with Fritz Richter.
  • Maxima-Greek, bold italic. 1985. Collaboration with Fritz Richter.
  • Maxima small caps, lean. 1964/1986.
  • Maxima textbook version. 80s.
  • Maxima-Egyptienne. Test word. 1988.
  • Maxima, in bold italics. 1988.
  • Maxima-Vietnamese, lean. 1988.
  • Maxima, in italics. 1990.

Maxima Now. 2006-2009. Redesign by Elsner + Flake, Hamburg. 31 versions:

  • extra delicate, extra delicate italic, small caps extra delicate;
  • narrow extra delicate, extra narrow extra delicate, delicate, delicate italic, small caps delicate, narrow delicate, extra narrow delicate;
  • lean, lean italic, small caps lean, narrow lean, extra narrow lean;
  • semi-bold, semi-bold italic, small caps semi-bold, narrow semi-bold, extra narrow semi-bold;
  • bold, bold italic, small caps bold, narrow bold, extra narrow bold;
  • extra bold, extra bold italic, small caps extra bold;
  • wide bold, wide extra bold, extra wide extra bold.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Elsner and Flake via VEB Typoart , accessed on September 7, 2013.
  2. ↑ Sample on the website www.typografie.info , accessed on September 4, 2013