Univers Fonts

The Univers font is the name of a realist sans-serif typeface created by Adrian Frutiger in 1954. The Univers font family can be used for just about any kind of applicaton and in display sizes, this font looks clean and beautifully spaced. It works well in harmony with Helvetica and together they capture the essence of the sans serif style.

Univers Fonts Packages

• Univers Complete Font Family Pack
• Univers Light 45
• Univers Light Oblique
• Univers 55
• Univers Oblique
• Univers Bold 65
• Univers Bold Oblique
• Univers Black 75
• Univers Black Oblique
• Univers Condensed Light
• Univers Condensed Light Oblique
• Univers Condensed
• Univers Condensed Oblique
• Univers Condensed Bold
• Univers Condensed Bold Oblique
• Univers Ultra Condensed Thin 39
• Univers Ultra Condensed Light 49
• Univers Ultra Condensed 59
• Univers Extended 53
• Univers Extended Oblique
• Univers Bold Extended 63
• Univers Bold Extended Oblique
• Univers Extended Black 73
• Univers Extended Black Oblique
• Univers Extra Black Oblique
• Univers Extra Black 85
• Univers Extended Extra Black 93
• Univers Extended Extra Black Oblique

• Univers Com Complete Font Family Pack

In 1957, the Univers first appeared in both film and foundry metal for hand-setting. Originally conceived and released by Deberny & Peignot in 1957, the type library was obtained in 1972 by Haas. Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei (Haas Type Foundry) was later rendered into the D. Stempel AG and Linotype collection in 1985 and 1989 respectively.

Despite its divergence from Helvetica and Akzidenz-Grotesk, Univers is essentially a neo-grotesque, but with a humanist touch. The earliest version of Univers was designed for use on the Lumitype/Photon photosetting machine, which was a second generation photsetter. However, its popularity increased when in 1961, Monotype released it for Monophoto and hot-metal machines.  The hot-metal types were produced as Didot point sizes cast on larger Anglo-American point size bodies.

A comparison with Helvetica and Akzidenz shows Univers to be narrower, more noticeably in the capitals. The circular characters are more oval, with a slight squareness to the curves, suggesting a less mechanical form. However, the letter fit is more generous, so that size for size, even thogh the x-height is smaller, the Univers font will take up more space than Helvetica. The range of variants follows carefully balanced increases in weight that do not match those of Helvetica and Akzidenz.

During the late 1990s, in addition to their existing range of Univers, Linotype took on the task of totally renovating the 40-year-old type design. This involved a return to the original drawings of the 1950s to check up on the abnormalities that might have arisen during the years Univers had been in circulation. Linotype has revised the design by carrying out refinements to the letterforms and the character weight relationships, and the range of weights and widths has been increased.

The greatest quality of the Univers font is its modesty. What it may lack as an assertive display face, it makes up for in its quietly efficient range of weights, enabling it to function as a text face. Typefaces intended for substantial lengths of text should not be lengthy in characters. A typeface may be attractive as few lines in the catalogue, but can have oddities which are annoying on the screen or over pages of continuous reading.

Currently, the Univers font 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™ is a trademark of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, which may be registered in certain jurisdictions, exclusively licensed through Linotype Library GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.