.gif)
Microgramma (typeface)
Encyclopedia
Microgramma, a typeface
similar to Eurostile
, which was based upon it, is a sans serif font
which was designed by Aldo Novarese
and Alessandro Butti
for the Nebiolo Type Foundry
in 1952. It became popular for use with technical illustrations in the 1960s and was a favourite of graphic designers by the early seventies, its uses ranging from publicity and publication design to packaging, largely because of its availability as a Letraset
typeface. Early typesetters (like the AM Varityper) also incorporated it.
The typeface is almost always used in its extended and bold extended forms (pictured). Initially, it only had capital letters. Later versions, by Linotype and URW/Nebiolo
, contain lower case letters, accented Latin characters, mathematical symbols, and Latin ligatures. In the URW/Nebiolo version, there are also extended Latin, subscrips and superscripts, extended Latin ligatures.
The Euro sign
in the font has a different weight, styled from a different font family, and is not shadowed.
and fantasy
stories depicting advanced technology
and space exploration
.
Star Trek
The Microgramma Bold
Extended typeface was used extensively in the Star Trek
universe, such as Franz Joseph
's The Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual, although many in the typesetting community felt it looked dated by the 1970s. The font, in both its original and various altered forms, was incorporated into numerous displays and on ship exteriors in six of the Star Trek motion pictures, as well as depictions of "earlier technology" display screens, particularly for the Enterprise
"prequel" series, during the four later television series-The Next Generation
had established the use of the 'real world's' Compacta
typeface for all screen display lettering for its time, and onwards.
, the 1984 film 2010: The Year We Make Contact
, the 1971 film version of The Andromeda Strain
, and the Gerry Anderson TV series programmes Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
, Joe 90
, Space: 1999
, and UFO
.
The typeface remains in common use today; examples of its usage include these:
Many car manufacturers in the 1980s and the 1990s, notably Honda
and Nissan, use Microgramma on the interior gauges and switches of their vehicles. Abarth
also use the font extensively. Radiohead
used Microgramma in their breakthrough albums, The Bends
and OK Computer
, and US rock band Hurt
used it for their logo.
According to MasGrafx Racing Graphics, Microgamma is the font of several NASCAR numbers; #8 (Mark Martin), #3 (Dale Earnhardt
) and #29 (Kevin Harvick
). Some of these are in italics (angled).
Microgramma is also the default logo font used by Alienware Computers. Microgramma is the in-game Doom 3
font.
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....
similar to Eurostile
Eurostile
The Eurostile type font style is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by Aldo Novarese in 1962. Novarese originally made Eurostile for one of the best-known Italian foundries, Nebiolo, in Turin....
, which was based upon it, is a sans serif font
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....
which was designed by Aldo Novarese
Aldo Novarese
Aldo Novarese was an Italian type designer who lived and worked mostly in Turin where he produced an impressive number of unique designs.-Training and Career:...
and Alessandro Butti
Alessandro Butti
Alessandro Butti was an Italian type designer who lived and worked mostly in Turin where he was art director of the Nebiolo type foundry. He also taught at the Scuola Vigliani-Paravia. Microgramma is his most famous face...
for the Nebiolo Type Foundry
Nebiolo Printech
Nebiolo Printech S.p.A. is a manufacturer of printing presses and paper and formerly a type foundry. Nebiolo & Co. was created when Giovanni Nebiolo bought out the type foundry of G. Narizzano in Turin, Italy in 1852. In 1908 the company merged with the Urania Company and operated under the name...
in 1952. It became popular for use with technical illustrations in the 1960s and was a favourite of graphic designers by the early seventies, its uses ranging from publicity and publication design to packaging, largely because of its availability as a Letraset
Letraset
Letraset is a company based in the Kingsnorth Industrial Estate in Ashford, Kent, UK.It is known mainly for manufacturing sheets of artwork elements which can be transferred to artwork being prepared. The name Letraset was often used to refer generically to sheets of dry transferrable lettering of...
typeface. Early typesetters (like the AM Varityper) also incorporated it.
The typeface is almost always used in its extended and bold extended forms (pictured). Initially, it only had capital letters. Later versions, by Linotype and URW/Nebiolo
Nebiolo Printech
Nebiolo Printech S.p.A. is a manufacturer of printing presses and paper and formerly a type foundry. Nebiolo & Co. was created when Giovanni Nebiolo bought out the type foundry of G. Narizzano in Turin, Italy in 1852. In 1908 the company merged with the Urania Company and operated under the name...
, contain lower case letters, accented Latin characters, mathematical symbols, and Latin ligatures. In the URW/Nebiolo version, there are also extended Latin, subscrips and superscripts, extended Latin ligatures.
Microgramma OnlyShadow
Microgramma OnlyShadow is a variant of Microgramma Bold that contains only the shadows of Microgramma Extended Bold, designed by URW Studio and Aldo Novarese in 1994. Although Alessandro Butti died in 1959, URW credited Alessandro Butti as designer for the new font.The Euro sign
Euro sign
The euro sign is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the Eurozone in the European Union . The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. The international three-letter code for the euro is EUR...
in the font has a different weight, styled from a different font family, and is not shadowed.
Microgramma in popular culture
Because of its bold, strong strokes and sharp square angles, Microgramma was soon appropriated for use in science fictionScience fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
and fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
stories depicting advanced technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
and space exploration
Space exploration
Space exploration is the use of space technology to explore outer space. Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights and by robotic spacecraft....
.
Star TrekStar TrekStar Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
The Microgramma BoldEmphasis (typography)
In typography, emphasis is the exaggeration of words in a text with a font in a different style from the rest of the text—to emphasize them.- Methods and use :...
Extended typeface was used extensively in the Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
universe, such as Franz Joseph
Franz Joseph (artist)
Franz Joseph was an artist and author loosely associated with the 1960’s American television show Star Trek. Joseph is perhaps best known for his 1973 Star Trek Blueprints , to date the only set of blueprints of the original Starship Enterprise ever officially endorsed by...
's The Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual, although many in the typesetting community felt it looked dated by the 1970s. The font, in both its original and various altered forms, was incorporated into numerous displays and on ship exteriors in six of the Star Trek motion pictures, as well as depictions of "earlier technology" display screens, particularly for the Enterprise
Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: Enterprise is a science fiction television series. It follows the adventures of humanity's first warp 5 starship, the Enterprise, ten years before the United Federation of Planets shown in previous Star Trek series was formed.Enterprise premiered on September 26, 2001...
"prequel" series, during the four later television series-The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
had established the use of the 'real world's' Compacta
Compacta (typeface)
Compacta is a condensed sans-serif typeface designed by the type designer Fred Lambert. It was used on-screen by NBC Sports from 1991-95 and in the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation and Baywatch. It is available in light, regular, bold and black weights....
typeface for all screen display lettering for its time, and onwards.
Other sources
Microgramma was used extensively in the 1968 motion picture 2001: A Space Odyssey2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...
, the 1984 film 2010: The Year We Make Contact
2010: The Year We Make Contact
Jupiter is engulfed by monoliths, which increase its density to the point that nuclear fusion occurs, transforming the planet into a small star. Discovery is consumed in the blast, but Leonov breaks away and begins its long journey home. The new star's miraculous appearance later inspires...
, the 1971 film version of The Andromeda Strain
The Andromeda Strain (film)
The Andromeda Strain is a 1971 American science-fiction film, based on the novel published in 1969 by Michael Crichton. The film is about a team of scientists who investigate a deadly organism of extraterrestrial origin that causes rapid, fatal blood clotting. Directed by Robert Wise, the film...
, and the Gerry Anderson TV series programmes Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, often referred to as Captain Scarlet, is a 1960s British science-fiction television series produced by the Century 21 Productions company of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, John Read and Reg Hill...
, Joe 90
Joe 90
Joe 90 is a late-1960s British science-fiction television series documenting the exploits of a nine-year-old boy, Joe McClaine, who embarks on a double life as a schoolboy turned spy when his scientist father invents a pioneering machine capable of duplicating and transferring expert knowledge and...
, Space: 1999
Space: 1999
Space: 1999 is a British science-fiction television series that ran for two seasons and originally aired from 1975 to 1977. In the opening episode, nuclear waste from Earth stored on the Moon's far side explodes in a catastrophic accident on 13 September 1999, knocking the Moon out of orbit and...
, and UFO
UFO (TV series)
UFO is a 1970-1971 British television science fiction series about an alien invasion of Earth, created by Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson with Reg Hill, and produced by the Andersons and Lew Grade's Century 21 Productions for Grade's ITC Entertainment company.UFO first aired in the UK and Canada...
.
The typeface remains in common use today; examples of its usage include these:
- The CBSCBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
reality show The Amazing RaceThe Amazing RaceThe Amazing Race is a reality television game show in which teams of two people, who have some form of a preexisting personal relationship, race around the world in competition with other teams...
. - The call letters in logos for MyNetworkTVMyNetworkTVMyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
affiliates. - The CasioCasiois a multinational electronic devices manufacturing company founded in 1946, with its headquarters in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Casio is best known for its electronic products, such as calculators, audio equipment, PDAs, cameras, musical instruments, and watches...
logo, and also the logo for Ampex Corporation. - The HalliburtonHalliburtonHalliburton is the world's second largest oilfield services corporation with operations in more than 70 countries. It has hundreds of subsidiaries, affiliates, branches, brands and divisions worldwide and employs over 50,000 people....
logo. - The Truman ShowThe Truman ShowThe Truman Show is a 1998 American satirical comedy-drama film directed by Peter Weir and written by Andrew Niccol. The cast includes Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, as well as Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Ed Harris and Natascha McElhone...
- Both the current and previous logos of ToshibaToshibais a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...
use variants of Microgramma. - Disney/PixarPixarPixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
's The IncrediblesThe IncrediblesThe Incredibles is a 2004 American computer-animated action-comedy superhero film about a family of superheroes who are forced to hide their powers. It was written and directed by Brad Bird, a former director and executive consultant of The Simpsons, and was produced by Pixar and distributed by...
. - The re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series logo.
- Most user interface text in the StarCraftStarCraftStarCraft is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The first game of the StarCraft series was released for Microsoft Windows on 31 March 1998. With more than 11 million copies sold worldwide as of February 2009, it is one of the best-selling...
and StarCraft IIStarCraft IIStarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed and released by Blizzard Entertainment for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. A sequel to the award-winning 1998 video game StarCraft and its expansions, the game was released worldwide on July 27, 2010...
video games. - The PC Outlet logo.
- NBC NewsNBC NewsNBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...
used this in their graphics during 1990 and 1991. - HomeworldHomeworldHomeworld is a real-time strategy computer game released on September 28, 1999, developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Sierra Entertainment. It was the first fully three-dimensional RTS. In 2003, Relic released the source code for Homeworld...
game series. - The Unicamp logo.
- 3 Doors Down3 Doors Down3 Doors Down is an American rock band from Escatawpa formed in 1996. The band consists of Brad Arnold , Matt Roberts , Todd Harrell , Chris Henderson , and Greg Upchurch ....
Many car manufacturers in the 1980s and the 1990s, notably Honda
Honda
is a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles.Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than...
and Nissan, use Microgramma on the interior gauges and switches of their vehicles. Abarth
Abarth
Abarth is an Italian racing car maker founded by Austrian-Italian Carlo Abarth and Italian Armando Scagliarini in Turin in 1949. Its logo depicts a stylized scorpion on a red and yellow background.- History :...
also use the font extensively. Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
used Microgramma in their breakthrough albums, The Bends
The Bends
The Bends is the second studio album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released on 13 March 1995 by Parlophone. The Bends was produced by John Leckie at EMI's studios in London, and engineered by Nigel Godrich, who would go on to produce all future albums by the band...
and OK Computer
OK Computer
OK Computer is the third studio album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released on 16 June 1997 on Parlophone in the UK and 1 July 1997 by Capitol Records in the US. It marks a deliberate attempt by the band to move away from the introspective guitar-oriented sound of their previous...
, and US rock band Hurt
Hurt (band)
Hurt is a rock band formed in 2000 in Virginia, now located in Los Angeles, California, United States. Currently in partnership with their manager's independent record label, Amusement, the band has put out three major label albums. The group consists of lead singer J...
used it for their logo.
According to MasGrafx Racing Graphics, Microgamma is the font of several NASCAR numbers; #8 (Mark Martin), #3 (Dale Earnhardt
Dale Earnhardt
Ralph Dale Earnhardt, Sr. was an American race car driver, best known for his involvement in stock car racing for NASCAR...
) and #29 (Kevin Harvick
Kevin Harvick
Kevin Michael Harvick is an American stock car auto racing race car driver and car owner currently competing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for Richard Childress Racing, driving the No. 29 Budweiser/Jimmy John's/Rheem/Okuma/Realtree Outdoors/Bad Boy Buggies Chevrolet Impala...
). Some of these are in italics (angled).
Microgramma is also the default logo font used by Alienware Computers. Microgramma is the in-game Doom 3
Doom 3
Doom 3 is a science fiction horror video game developed by id Software and published by Activision. An example of the first-person shooter genre, Doom 3 was first released for Microsoft Windows on August 3, 2004. The game was later adapted for Linux, as well as being ported by Aspyr Media for Mac...
font.