DIN 1451
Encyclopedia
DIN 1451 is a realist sans-serif
typeface
that is widely used for traffic, administration and business applications. It has been defined by the German
standards body Deutsches Institut für Normung
since 1936.
offers an extended version of this typeface called FF DIN
.
The origins of this typeface go back to 1905, when the Königlich Preußische Eisenbahn-Verwaltung (Royal Prussian Railway Administration) standardized the lettering to be used on all its rolling stock in a design instruction known as Musterzeichnung (pattern drawing) IV 44. A number of the glyphs
have since been changed, in particular those for "t", "6" and "9".
The article series "The history of the design of a contemporary typeface" provides more information about the origins of the typeface.
DIN 1451 is a widely used standard typeface for traffic, administration, and business applications. In particular, it is the typeface commonly used on road and railway signage in Germany and a number of other countries. It was also used for many years on German car number plates, until replaced there in November 2000 by FE-Schrift
, a font especially designed to make the plates more tamper-proof and to optimize automatic character recognition.
OpenType version supports ISO Adobe 2, Adobe CE, Latin Extended character sets. OpenType features include alternates.
The family includes 21 fonts in 7 weights and 2 widths, with complementary italics for the widest width fonts. It supports ISO-Adobe, Adobe CE, Latin Extended character sets. OpenType features include small caps (lightest 4 weights roman fonts only), old style figures, subscript/superscript, alternates.
Alternates include:
The family includes 4 fonts in 4 weights and 1 width, with no italics. OpenType features include old style figures, subscript/superscript, alternates.
This is an updated version of the series of articles in Encore Magazine that were published in 2004–2005.
Sans-serif
In typography, a sans-serif, sans serif or san serif typeface is one that does not have the small projecting features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. The term comes from the French word sans, meaning "without"....
typeface
Typeface
In typography, a typeface is the artistic representation or interpretation of characters; it is the way the type looks. Each type is designed and there are thousands of different typefaces in existence, with new ones being developed constantly....
that is widely used for traffic, administration and business applications. It has been defined by the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
standards body Deutsches Institut für Normung
Deutsches Institut für Normung
is the German national organization for standardization and is that country's ISO member body. DIN is a Registered German Association headquartered in Berlin...
since 1936.
Overview
The DIN 1451 typeface is very legible and easy to reproduce. Both a medium and a narrow version are defined today; an older broad version is no longer used, but may still be encountered on some very old road signs in Germany. The typeface has gained popularity due to its wide exposure and has been also used by non-governmental organisations and businesses. For graphic design and desktop publishing, FSI FontShop InternationalFSI FontShop International
FSI FontShop International is an international manufacturer of digital typefaces , based in Berlin and one of the large type foundries that exist today.All the typefaces are published as part of the FontFont library...
offers an extended version of this typeface called FF DIN
FF DIN
FF DIN is a realist sans-serif typeface designed in 1995 by Albert-Jan Pool, based on DIN-Mittelschrift. DIN is an acronym for Deutsches Institut für Normung ....
.
The origins of this typeface go back to 1905, when the Königlich Preußische Eisenbahn-Verwaltung (Royal Prussian Railway Administration) standardized the lettering to be used on all its rolling stock in a design instruction known as Musterzeichnung (pattern drawing) IV 44. A number of the glyphs
Glyph
A glyph is an element of writing: an individual mark on a written medium that contributes to the meaning of what is written. A glyph is made up of one or more graphemes....
have since been changed, in particular those for "t", "6" and "9".
The article series "The history of the design of a contemporary typeface" provides more information about the origins of the typeface.
DIN 1451 is a widely used standard typeface for traffic, administration, and business applications. In particular, it is the typeface commonly used on road and railway signage in Germany and a number of other countries. It was also used for many years on German car number plates, until replaced there in November 2000 by FE-Schrift
FE-Schrift
' or ' has been the only typeface used on new vehicle registration plates of Germany since November 2000, except for plates issued to military-registered vehicles, which still use the former DIN 1451 typeface...
, a font especially designed to make the plates more tamper-proof and to optimize automatic character recognition.
Linotype version
It consists of DIN 1451 MittelSchrift and the condensed DIN 1451 EngSchrift fonts.OpenType version supports ISO Adobe 2, Adobe CE, Latin Extended character sets. OpenType features include alternates.
DIN 1451 Pro W1G MittelSchrift
It is a version of DIN 1451 MittelSchrift supporting ISO Adobe 2, Adobe CE, Latin Extended, Greek, Cyrillic character sets.DIN Next
It is a variant based on DIN 1451 Engschrift and Mittelschrift, designed by Akira Kobayashi of Linotype. Changes include fixing inconsistencies in the old fonts, rounded corners at terminals to emulate the machine cuts of the original fonts, altered terminal angles to reproduce the machine cuts of DIN 1451.The family includes 21 fonts in 7 weights and 2 widths, with complementary italics for the widest width fonts. It supports ISO-Adobe, Adobe CE, Latin Extended character sets. OpenType features include small caps (lightest 4 weights roman fonts only), old style figures, subscript/superscript, alternates.
Alternates include:
- Uppercase C and G with flat stroke or diagonal endings.
- Serif and sans-serif forms of uppercase I.
- Single-storey lowercase a.
- Lowercase q with an upstroke at the descender end.
- ß ligature composed by long-s and long-z.
- 1 with base serif.
- Rounded 6 and 9.
- Slashed 0.
- 7 and capital Z with horizontal strokes through their diagonals.
DIN Next Rounded
It is a rounded variant of the font family.The family includes 4 fonts in 4 weights and 1 width, with no italics. OpenType features include old style figures, subscript/superscript, alternates.
Usage examples
Corporate branding
- Logotype and corporate typeface of Sapient corporation
- Logotype of JetBlue AirwaysJetBlue AirwaysJetBlue Airways Corporation is an American low-cost airline. The company is headquartered in the Forest Hills neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens. Its main base is John F. Kennedy International Airport, also in Queens....
- Logo of the video game Half-Life, with the "A" supplanted by the lower case lambdaLambdaLambda is the 11th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals lambda has a value of 30. Lambda is related to the Phoenician letter Lamed . Letters in other alphabets that stemmed from lambda include the Roman L and the Cyrillic letter El...
symbol. Its sequel, "Half-Life 2Half-Life 2Half-Life 2 , the sequel to Half-Life, is a first-person shooter video game and a signature title in the Half-Life series. It is singleplayer, story-driven, science fiction, and linear...
", uses this font in various places as well, including HUD. - Logo of the video game "Portal" and its sequel, "Portal 2Portal 2Portal 2 is a first-person puzzle-platform video game developed and published by Valve Corporation. The sequel to the 2007 video game Portal, it was announced on March 5, 2010, following a week-long alternate reality game based on new patches to the original game...
", with the uppercase "O" replaced with a blue portal. - Early 2000s on-screen branding of Channel 4Channel 4Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
(BritishUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television station) - An adapted version, Habitat DIN, is used by HabitatHabitat (retailer)Habitat Retail Ltd. is a retailer of household furnishings in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, and has franchised outlets in other countries. Founded in 1964 by Terence Conran, it was sold by the IKANO Group, owned by the Kamprad family, in December 2009 to Hilco, a restructuring...
(retailer) - Corporate branding of The New West End Company (the Business Improvement District company for LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's West EndWest End of LondonThe West End of London is an area of central London, containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings, and entertainment . Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross...
) - Belgian VRTVlaamse Radio- en TelevisieomroepThe Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie , or VRT, is a publicly-funded broadcaster of radio and television in Flanders ....
news service (De Redactie) for logo and news broadcasts. - Plone logo
- Dutch website DigitaalMedia.nl for logo and the news broadcasts.
- Primary font used in Simon Fraser UniversitySimon Fraser UniversitySimon Fraser University is a Canadian public research university in British Columbia with its main campus on Burnaby Mountain in Burnaby, and satellite campuses in Vancouver and Surrey. The main campus in Burnaby, located from downtown Vancouver, was established in 1965 and has more than 34,000...
documents - Font for Nine News for their title
- Used on Test The NationTest the NationTest the Nation is a television programme, first broadcast in 2001 by BNN in the Netherlands where the concept is owned by Eyeworks Holding who license it to TV production companies around the world.-Show format:...
's question graphics - Primary font used in York Region TransitYork Region TransitYork Region Transit is the public transit operator in York Region, Ontario, Canada. Its headquarters are in Richmond Hill, at 50 High Tech Road....
- On-air newscasts of most NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
Owned-and-Operated stations (i.e. KNBCKNBCKNBC, channel 4, is an owned-and-operated television station of the NBC Television Network, licensed to Los Angeles, California, USA. KNBC's studios and offices are located within the NBC Studios complex in Burbank, California, and its transmitter is located on Mount Wilson...
, WCAUWCAUWCAU, channel 10, is an owned-and-operated television station of the NBC Television Network, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. WCAU has its studios on the border between Philadelphia and Bala Cynwyd. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 34 from a transmitter in the...
, WRC-TVWRC-TVWRC-TV, channel 4, is an owned and operated television station of the NBC television network, located in the American capital city of Washington, D.C...
, etc.) - Corporate font used by Birmingham City UniversityBirmingham City UniversityBirmingham City University is a British university in the city of Birmingham, England. It is the second largest of three universities in the city, the other two being the Aston University and University of Birmingham...
- Opening titles of Dexter (TV series)Dexter (TV series)Dexter is an American television drama series, which debuted on Showtime on October 1, 2006. The sixth season premiered on October 2, 2011. The series centers on Dexter Morgan , a bloodstain pattern analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department who moonlights as a serial killer...
- Font for many license plates throughout Europe, including PolandPolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
,older GermanGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
plates, LithuaniaLithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, LatviaLatviaLatvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
, SwedenSwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, and RomaniaRomaniaRomania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
. - Used as one of the interface and HUDHUD (video gaming)In video gaming, the HUD is the method by which information is visually relayed to the player as part of a game's user interface...
fonts for the video game Grand Theft Auto IVGrand Theft Auto IVGrand Theft Auto IV is a 2008 open world action video game published by Rockstar Games, and developed by British games developer Rockstar North. It has been released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles, and for the Windows operating system...
and its expansion packs.
Further reading
- DIN 1451-2: Schriften – Serifenlose Linear-Antiqua – Verkehrsschrift. Deutsches Institut für NormungDeutsches Institut für Normungis the German national organization for standardization and is that country's ISO member body. DIN is a Registered German Association headquartered in Berlin...
, 1986-02. - Made with FontFont: FF DIN – The history of a contemporary typeface, article by Albert-Jan PoolAlbert-Jan PoolAlbert-Jan Pool is a Dutch professional type designer. He studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague....
in collaboration with Jan Middendorp, BIS Publishers, 2006.
This is an updated version of the series of articles in Encore Magazine that were published in 2004–2005.