FF Scala is an old-style serif typeface designed by Dutch typeface designer Martin Majoor in 1991 for the

Muziekcentrum Vredenburg Muziekcentrum Vredenburg was a music venue in Utrecht, Netherlands with a capacity of 5,000 people. It was designed by Dutch architect Herman Hertzberger. The venue hosted concerts by many famous artists, spanning many different genres. The old bu ...

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. The FF Scala font family was named for the Teatro alla Scala (1776–78) in

Milan, Italy Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

. Like many contemporary Dutch serif faces, FF Scala is not an academic revival of a single historic typeface but shows influences of several historic models. Similarities can be seen with

William Addison Dwiggins William Addison Dwiggins (June 19, 1880 – December 25, 1956), was an American type designer, calligrapher, and book designer. He attained prominence as an illustrator and commercial artist, and he brought to the designing of type and books s ...

' 1935 design for the typeface Electra in its clarity of form, and rhythmic, highly calligraphic italics.

Eric Gill Arthur Eric Rowton Gill, (22 February 1882 – 17 November 1940) was an English sculptor, letter cutter, typeface designer, and printmaker. Although the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' describes Gill as ″the greatest artist-cra ...

's 1931 typeface

Joanna Joanna is a feminine given name deriving from from he, יוֹחָנָה, translit=Yôḥānāh, lit=God is gracious. Variants in English include Joan, Joann, Joanne, and Johanna. Other forms of the name in English are Jan, Jane, Janet, Janice ...

(released by Monotype Corporation in 1937), with its old style armature but nearly square serifs, is also similar in its nearly mono-weighted stroke width. FF Scala is a complete typeface family with small caps, ligatures and

text figures Text figures (also known as non-lining, lowercase, old style, ranging, hanging, medieval, billing, or antique figures or numerals) are numerals designed with varying heights in a fashion that resembles a typical line of running text, hence the ...

or lower-case numbers, as well as condensed regular and bold fonts. In 1996, a decorative variety of capitals titled FF Scala Jewel was released. These show influence of Dutch Baroque decorative capitals. A companion sans-serif version,

FF Scala Sans FF Scala Sans is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Dutch designer Martin Majoor in 1993 for the Vredenburg Music Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands. It was designed as a companion to Majoor's earlier serif old style typeface FF Scala, d ...

was released in 1993, making Scala a

font superfamily {{unsourced, date=March 2019 In typography, a font superfamily or typeface superfamily is a font family containing fonts that fall into multiple classifications. The norm in a superfamily is to start from an identical character shape; class-spec ...

of matching designs. This makes Scala a very popular font in book design and fine printing. FF Scala Jewels

FF Scala used to be the house typeface for the prominent Dutch newspaper ''

Algemeen Dagblad The ''Algemeen Dagblad'' () or ''AD'' () (English: "General Daily Paper") is a Dutch daily newspaper based in Rotterdam, Netherlands. History and profile ''Algemeen Dagblad'' was founded in 1946. The paper is published in tabloid format and ...

'' and for

KLM KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, legally ''Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V.'' (literal translation: Royal Aviation Company Plc.), is the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands. KLM is headquartered in Amstelveen, with its hub at nearby Amste ...

Royal Dutch Airlines. It is also used on the logo of the United States'

Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...

, which uses the similar

as a corporate font.

Bibliography

* Lupton, Ellen. ''Graphic Design and Typography in the Netherlands: A View of Recent Work.'' Princeton Architectural Press: 1992. . * Friedl, Frederich, Nicholas Ott and Bernard Stein. ''Typography: An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Through History.'' Black Dog & Leventhal: 1998. . *

Bringhurst, Robert Robert Bringhurst Appointments to the Order of Canada (2013). (born 16 October 1946) is a Canadian poet, typographer and author. He has translated substantial works from Haida and Navajo and from classical Greek and Arabic. He wrote '' The El ...

. ''

The Elements of Typographic Style ''The Elements of Typographic Style'' is a book on typography and style by Canadian typographer, poet and translator Robert Bringhurst. Originally published in 1992 by Hartley & Marks Publishers, it was revised in 1996, 2001 (v2.4), 2002 (v2.5), ...

''. Hartley & Marks: 1992. . * Middendorp, Jan: ''Dutch Type'', 010 Publishers: 2004, * Lupton, Ellen. ''Thinking with Type: A critical guide for designers, writers, editors, & students.'' Princeton Architectural Press: 2004. . * Spiekermann, Erik; Middendorp, Jan: ''Made with FontFont'', Book Industry Services (BIS): 2006, * Thi Truong, Mai-Linh; Siebert, Jürgen; Spiekermann, Erik: ''

FontBook ''FontBook'' is a typeface compendium in hardback published by FSI FontShop International and edited by Erik Spiekermann, Jürgen Siebert, and Mai-Linh Thi Truong. Published in 1991, it has been revised four times, with the latest edition publish ...

– Digital Typeface Compendium'', FSI FontShop International: 2006,

Bibliography

References

External links