What is the Univers® font?
Univers was designed by Adrian Frutiger on Swiss principles for Charles Peignot at Deberny & Peignot.
Frutiger imposed strict discipline across all elements of the series, from light to dark, extra condensed to extended, a concordance of design that was possible in the foundry type and photocomposition fonts. Any version may be mixed within a word with any other. It may be argued that the design of the most popular central series is limited by strict conformity to little used extremes. If Helvetica gives us the strongest central designs at some sacrifice in uniformity across the series, Univers gives us a uniform series by disciplining the central designs. More…
Alteration of character widths required by the Monotype caster separates Monotype Univers from the original; the Linotype photocomposition version, designed by Frutiger, has a more even color across the series, achieved by relaxing the original rigid formula for stroke width.
IBM Selectric Univers, designed by Frutiger, is less successful, since it had to be placed on widths tuned for Times Roman.
Univers® Font families
The Univers® includes the following font families:
- Univers 45 Light
- Univers 45 Light Oblique
- Univers 55 Roman
- Univers 55 Oblique
- Univers 65 Bold
- Univers 65 Bold Oblique
- Univers 75 Black
- Univers 75 Black Oblique
- Univers 85 Extra Black
- Univers 85 Extra Black Oblique
- Univers 39 Thin Ultra Condensed
- Univers 49 Light Ultra Condensed
- Univers 59 Ultra Condensed
- Univers 47 Light Condensed
- Univers 47 Light Condensed Oblique
- Univers 57 Condensed
- Univers 57 Condensed Oblique
- Univers 67 Bold Condensed
- Univers 67 Bold Condensed Oblique
- Univers 53 Extended
- Univers 53 Extended Oblique
- Univers 63 Bold Extended
- Univers 63 Bold Extended Oblique
- Univers 73 Black Extended
- Univers 73 Black Extended Oblique
- Univers 93 Extra Black Extended
- Univers 93 Extra Black Extended Oblique
Univers® Preview
Here is a preview of how Univers® will look. For more previews using your own text as an example, click here.
