Univers
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{{Infobox font
| name = Univers
| image = [[Image:UniversSpec.png|240px|Univers]]
| style = [[sans-serif]]
| classifications = [[sans-serif|Grotesque sans-serif]]
| date = 1957
| creator = [[Adrian Frutiger]]
| foundry = [[Deberny & Peignot]]<br/>[[Mergenthaler Linotype Company|Linotype]]
| variations = Zurich
|}}
{{dablink|This article is about a [[typeface]]; for information about similarly spelled topics, see [[Universe (disambiguation)]].}}__NOTOC__
'''Univers''' ({{IPA2|ynivɛʀ}}, [[French language|French]]: "universe") is the name of a realist [[sans-serif]] [[typeface]] designed by [[Adrian Frutiger]] in 1957.
Originally conceived and released by [[Deberny & Peignot]] in 1957, the type library was acquired in 1972 by Haas. Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei (Haas Type Foundry) was later folded into the D. Stempel AG and Linotype collection in 1985 and 1989 respectively.
==Characteristics==
Univers is one of a group of neo-grotesque sans-serif typefaces, all released in 1957<ref>Spiekermann, Erik and E.M. Ginger (2003). ''Stop Stealing Sheep & find out how type works''. Peachpit Press, p. 65. ISBN 9780201703399</ref>, that includes [[Folio (typeface)|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]].
Different weights and variations within the type family are designated by the use of '''numbers''' rather than names, a system since adopted by Frutiger for other type designs. Frutiger envisioned a large family with multiple widths and weights that maintained a unified design idiom. However, the actual typeface names within Univers family include both number and letter suffixes.
Currently, Univers type family consists of 44 faces, with 16 uniquely numbered weight, width, position combinations. 20 fonts have oblique or italic positions. 8 fonts support Central European character set. 8 support Cyrillic character set.
Despite the large family of widths, the @ mark is not rescaled by width.
==Linotype Univers==
In 1997 Frutiger reworked the whole Univers family in cooperation with [[Mergenthaler Linotype Company|Linotype]], thus creating the ''Linotype Univers'', which consists of 63 fonts. By reworking the Univers more "extreme" weights as ''Ultra Light'' or ''Extended Heavy'' were added as well as some monospaced typefaces. The numbering system was extended to three digits to reflect the larger number of variations in the family.
In addition to extra font width and weight combinations, the fonts are digitally interpolated, so that character widths scale uniformly with changing font weights. For fonts within a specific font weight, caps height, x-height, ascender and descender heights are the same. For italic fonts, the slope is increased from 12° to 16°, and the character widths were adjusted optically. In addition, characters such as &, ®, euro sign, are redesigned.
===Linotype Univers Typewriter===
It is a sub-family of fixed-width fonts under the Linotype Univers family. 4 fonts have been produced in Regular and Bold weights, with italics on each weight. Characters such as 1, I, J, M, W, i, j, l, [[dotless j]] are drawn differently from the proportits.
== The Frutiger numbering system ==
Adrian Frutiger designed his unique classification system to eliminate naming and specifying confusion. It was first used with Univers, and was adopted for use in the [[Frutiger]], [[Avenir]], and [[Neue Helvetica]] typeface families.
The number used in a font is a concatenation of 2 numbers. The first set defines weight, while the second defines width and position.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !!colspan=10|Suffix
|-
! Number ||1||2||3||4||5||6||7||8||9||10
|-
! Weight
| - ||Ultra Light||Thin||Light||Normal, Roman, or Regular||Medium||Bold||Heavy||Black||Ultra or Extra Black
|-
! Width and position
|Ultra Extended||Ultra Extended Oblique (Italic)||Extended||Extended Oblique (Italic)||Normal||Oblique (Italic)||Condensed||Condensed Oblique (Italic)||Ultra Condensed||-
|-
|}
Due to some typeface manufacturers’ failure to understand and implement the system correctly, however, things have actually become more confusing. To further complicate matters, the numbering system is not consistently applied to the Univers font family. In older publications, all oblique fonts have even-numbered 2nd values; but in digital versions, both odd and even 2nd values have been used on oblique fonts, but not in all font formats or weights. For example, Univers 55 Roman Oblique has both Windows menu names and PostScript full names as ''Univers LT 55 Oblique'' and ''Univers 56 Oblique'', but only for the Windows PostScript version of the font; however, in Univers 85 Extra Black Oblique, there is no font named Univers 86 in any format. Nevertheless, italic Univers fonts always have even-numbered 2nd value.
Inconsistent usage aside, the syntax of 2nd value is also inconsistent with 1st value. Bigger 1st value implies the glyph of a given character uses more horizontal space, but it has opposite meaning in 2nd value.
==Linotype numbering system==
In Linotype Univers font family, a 3-number system is used. First letter describes font weight, second letter describes font width, third letter describes position.<ref>[http://www.linotype.com/en/1813/linotypeunivers.html Linotype Univers 3.0]</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !!colspan=10|Suffix
|-
! Number ||0||1||2||3||4||5||6||7||8||9
|-
! Weight
| - ||Ultra Light||Thin||Light||Regular||Medium||Bold||Heavy||Black||Extra Black
|-
! Width
| - ||Compressed||Condensed||Basic||Extended||-||-||-||-||-
|-
! Position
|Roman||Italic||-||-||-||-||-||-||-||-
|-
|}
==Usage==
[[Image:PowerBook Univers keycaps.jpg|thumb|right|[[Keycap]]s featuring Univers from a [[PowerBook G4|pre-2003 PowerBook G4]].]]
Univers enjoyed great popularity in the 1960s and 1970s. It is used in a modified version by the new [[Swiss International Air Lines]] (previously, [[Swissair]] used the typeface [[Futura (typeface)|Futura]]), [[Munich Re Group]] (which also uses a personalized version), [[Deutsche Bank]] and for signage all over the world. [[General Electric]] used the font from 1986 to 2004 before switching to [[GE Inspira]] <ref>[http://users.ncrvnet.nl/mstol/ge1986.htm "A Website about Corporate Identity", entry for GE]</ref>. [[Apple Inc.]] previously used this typeface as well as its condensed oblique variant for the keycaps on many of its keyboards, before completely switching to [[VAG Rounded]] in August 2007 with the introduction of new keyboards and the new iMac (their notebook computers already featured that typeface since 2001). Univers is known for its clear lines and [[legibility]] at great distances.
The [[Montreal Metro]], San Francisco [[Bay Area Rapid Transit|BART]] <ref>[http://typographi.com/001032.php BART Wayfinding: The Shotgun Technique]</ref>, [[Frankfurt International Airport|Frankfurt airport]] and the [[Walt Disney World]] road system also make extensive use of this typeface. Some but not all [[London borough]]s use Univers Bold Condensed for street signs [http://photo.net/philg/digiphotos/200102-e10-london/orange-street-sign.half.jpg][http://www.minispace.co.uk/blog/images/ct-signs.jpg]. The [[Royal Air Force]] adopted the font for all merchandising material in 2006 to complement its new corporate logo. [[Ordnance Survey]] also adapted Univers for use on their maps (added tails on the lowercase l and t, and other small changes to help distinguish the type from the map details) of which they own all rights to. In 2006, the [[Office of Fair Trading]] adopted Univers as its corporate typographic voice in size 12-point so that visually impaired people can more easily read its publications.
Rand McNally once used Univers on their maps and atlases from the 1970s to 2004 when they adopted use of [[Frutiger]].
Univers is embedded in the HP [[LaserJet]] 1100 Printer. Installing a LaserJet 1100 on a Windows system will also add several new fonts to the list, with a printer icon near their names. This icon means that the selected font is a printer font (processed by the printer), instead of a system font (processed and [[rasterized]] by the system, such as a [[TrueType]] or [[OpenType]] typeface).
Frutiger (with Howard "Bud" Kettler<ref>{{cite book
| last = Macmillan
| first = Neil
| title = An A-Z of Type Designers
| accessdate = 2007-12-12
| year = 2006
| publisher = Laurence King Publishing
| isbn = 1856693953
| pages = p. 118
}}</ref>) adapted<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/rd/121/ibmrd1201D.pdf
| title = The IBM Selectric Composer: The Evolution of Composition Technology
| journal = IBM JOurnal of Research and Development
| accessdate = 2007-12-12
| last = Frutiger
| first = Adrian
| authorlink = Adrian Frutiger
| date = 1967-02-27
| format = PDF
| publisher = IBM
| pages = pp. 12–14
}}</ref> Univers for the 9-unit escapement system on the [[IBM Selectric Composer]] widely used for in-house typesetting in the 1960-70s.
Univers 45, 55, 65, 57, 67, 53, 63 are incorporated in PostScript standard as PostScript 3 core fonts.
==Comparison with Akzidenz-Grotesk, Folio, and Helvetica==
[[Image:AGcomparison08.svg|thumb|250px|Comparison of distinguishing characters in [[Akzidenz-Grotesk]], [[Folio (typeface)|Folio]], [[Helvetica]], and Univers 55.]]
Differences between Univers and the two other fonts include:
*The tail of 'a' and the top of '1' are much less rounded.
*'G' is formed without an arrow head (called a ''spur'').
*The arms of 'K' join at the stem.
*The tail of 'Q' runs along the baseline.
*The tail of 'R' is curved (compared with Akzidenz-Grotesk).
*The top of 't' is angled.
*'Y' has a straight descender.
== References ==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
* [http://typophile.com/wiki/Univers Typowiki: Univers]
* [http://www.linotype.com/en/1813-15552/podiumdiscussionuniversisaclassicaltypeface.html Podium discussion: Univers is a classical typeface]
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