Univers Specimen Book
By Adrian Frutiger
Not to be confused with Universe 1
? Contents
01 02 03 04
Univers History
3
Designer
5
History
7
Characteristics
9
Characteristics
11
Anatomy
13
Compared to Helvetica
14
Font family
17
Univers’s universe
19
Width, weight variation
23
Paragraph
25
Glyphs and Numbers
27
Glyphs & Numbers
29
Applications
31
2
1 Univers History
3
4
Adrian Frutiger
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The father of UNIVERS ö
Adrian Frutiger (born May 24, 1928 in Unterseen, Canton of Bern, Switzerland) is a typeface designer who influenced the direction of digital typography in the second half of the 20th century and into the 21st. He is best known for creating the Univers and Frutiger typefaces.
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Adrian Frutiger was born in Unterseen, Canton of Bern, the son of a weaver. As a boy, he experimented with invented scripts and stylized handwriting in negative reaction to the formal, cursive penmanship then required by Swiss schools. His early interest in sculpture was discouraged by his father and by his secondary school teachers; they encouraged him to work in printing. Though in the world of print, he maintains the love of sculpture that has influenced his type forms.
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Univers’s life story
The Univers® typeface family is one of the most prolific grotesque sans-serif typefaces of the century. Like Helvetica®, Univers is based on 1898‘s Akzidenz-Grotesk. However, Univers is unique in that the design lacks superfluous features of any type, creating a design that is versatile and distinctive without being obstrusive. Adrian Frutiger began work on Univers in 1954, completing his design in 1957. The Univers type family has grown to 44 different weights and styles, some of which include Cyrillic characters. A very important aspect of the Univers family is its modularity. Frutiger wanted to create a series of related designs that were absolutely harmonious with each other. This could only be accomplished by determining the complete family range as part of the design process or by building the family within a strict modular framework. Frutiger did both. Frutiger has continued to improve and expand the Univers family, working with Linotype designers to add new weights and enlarging the character set to include many languages such as Greek, Cyrillic and Arabic. The final iteration of the family, Univers Next – a complete upgrading of the design – was released in 2010.
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2 Characteristics
9
10
s n Sa
f i r se
l a ion
s s fe
rP o
s u nio
o m ar
H
C
i s on
11
t n ste
Characteristics
ick
Th ht
eig rw
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let 12
Anatomy
Sharp Contrast CAP-HEIGHT X-HEIGHT
BASELINE
Nice Curve
Univers creates a situation in which there are aâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s of many different shapes, and each has to be positioned on the axes of weight and width, distributed sufficiently far away from the next, but no further, in order to create a usable system.
Univers goes beyond the quest to design individual letters, attempting instead to design space, to create a system of relationships between different sets of shapes which share distinctive parameters.
Ascender
Descender 13
Comparision
tea tea 102 pt text
G G Univers
Thinner Stroke
No spur
Helvetica
Thick Stroke
Spur
Legibility
Legibility
Univers 55/14 pt
Helvetica Neue/14 pt
Univers 55/12 pt
Helvetica Neue/12 pt
Univers 55/10 pt
Helvetica Neue/10 pt
Univers 55/8 pt
Helvetica Neue/8 pt
14
Univ Helve Univers
Helvetica Neue
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Suspendisse eu elit bibendum metus pretium lobortis. Etiam suscipit lectus libero, vel dapibus purus ultricies ac. Morbi pretium nisl diam, quis imperdiet elit mattis nec. Pellentesque hendrerit nunc vel ligula vestibulum ullamcorper. Nam blandit nibh est, vitae rhoncus erat tristique eu.
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vers etica vs
Univers
k
k
Helvetica
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3 Font Family
17
18
Univerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s family 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.
Univers 63 Bold Extended
Univers 57 Condensed
Univers 45 Light
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.
Univers 85 Extra Black
Univers 75 Black
Univers 65
20
“When I put my pen to a blank sheet, black isn’t added but rather the white sheet is deprived of light. […] Thus I also grasped that the empty spaces are the most important aspect of a typeface.” - Adrian Frutiger
WIDTH WEIGHT
Extended
Thin
Light
Standard
Bold
Black
Extra Black
Extra Black
23
a a a a a
Standard
a a a a a
Condensed
a a a
Ultra Condensed
a a a
24
Paragraph
25
9 pt text
Univers 45 Light
Univers 55
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque augue magna, dapibus nec ornare ac, vehicula nec odio. Etiam ullamcorper sit amet nisl vitae cursus. Nam ligula urna, pharetra sed dui rhoncus, volutpat tristique.
Univers 47 Condensed Light
Univers 57 Condensed
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque augue magna, dapibus nec ornare ac, vehicula nec odio. Etiam ullamcorper sit amet nisl vitae cursus. Nam ligula urna, pharetra sed dui rhoncus, volutpat tristique mauris.
Univers is a font family includes a wide variety weights and styles. This suitable for many types It is an interesting alter Helvetica. It looks a bit modern and is just as su for body text.
Univers Typeface
9 pt text
Univers 53 Extended
Univers 63 Bold Ext
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque augue magna, dapibus nec ornare ac, vehicula nec odio. Etiam ullamcorper sit amet nisl vitae cursus. Nam ligula urna, pharetra sed dui rho.
Univers 65
Univers 67 Condensed
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque augue magna, dapi nec ornare ac, vehicula nec odio. Etiam ullamcorper sit amet nisl vitae cursus. Nam ligula urna, pharetra sed.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque augue magna, dapibus nec ornare ac, vehicula nec odio. Etiam ullamcorper sit amet nisl vitae cursus. Nam ligula urna, pharetra sed dui rhoncus.
that of s makes it s of jobs. rnative to more uitable
“If you remember the shape of your spoon at lunch, it has to be the wrong shape. The spoon and the letter are tools; one to take food from the bowl, the other to take information off the page… When it is a good design, the reader has to feel comfortable because the letter is both banal and beautiful.” - Adrian Frutiger
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4 Glyphs and Numbers
27
28
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1 2 3 4 5
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6 7 8 9 0
THE BEST WAY TO is to
CREATE IT 31
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