FF Scala Sans is a

humanist sans-serif In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif, gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than seri ...

typeface A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font. There are list of type ...

Martin Majoor Martin Majoor (born 14 October 1960) is a Dutch type designer and graphic designer. As of 2006, he had worked since 1997 in both Arnhem, Netherlands, and Warsaw, Poland. Biography Early life Majoor was born in 1960 in the town of Baarn, in th ...

in 1993 for the Vredenburg Music Center in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

, the Netherlands. It was designed as a companion to Majoor's earlier serif old style typeface

FF Scala FF Scala is an old-style serif typeface designed by Dutch typeface designer Martin Majoor in 1991 for the Muziekcentrum Vredenburg in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The FF Scala font family was named for the Teatro alla Scala (1776–78) in Milan, ...

, designed in 1990. Like Eric Gill's 1927–30 design

Gill Sans Gill Sans is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Eric Gill and released by the British branch of Monotype from 1928 onwards. Gill Sans is based on Edward Johnston's 1916 "Underground Alphabet", the corporate font of London Underground. ...

and Hans Eduard Meier's typeface

Syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...

, both upper and lower case are structurally modeled on serif old style faces. The lowercase roman a and g are two-story. FF Scala Sans italics are true italics, not sloped roman. The lowercase a, e, v and y are particularly calligraphic. FF Scala Sans is a very complete sans-serif in its inclusion of true small capitals, lining and non-lining (old style figures) and many ligatures. In 1993 an additional condensed width of the typeface was released. The typefaces are available through Font Shop International. The typeface is prominently used by the

Los Angeles Metro The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA), commonly branded as Metro, LA Metro, and L.A. Metro, is the state agency that plans, operates, and coordinates funding for most of the transportation system in Los Angeles ...

, and the Hungarian weekly magazine

Magyar Narancs ''Magyar Narancs'' (''Hungarian Orange'' in English) is a weekly liberal magazine with a strong satirical tone appearing on Thursdays in Hungary. It is informally referred to as Mancs (''Paw'' in English) which is a joking abbreviation of the name ...

. FF Scala Sans is rarely used by

Kwik Trip Kwik Trip is a chain of convenience stores founded in 1965 with locations throughout Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin under the name Kwik Trip, and in Illinois and Iowa under the name Kwik Star (to avoid confusion with QuikTrip ...

, most notably some of its signage. It is also used by the

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago is a contemporary art art gallery, museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one ...

, as well as the fifteenth edition of

The Chicago Manual of Style ''The Chicago Manual of Style'' (abbreviated in writing as ''CMOS'' or ''CMS'', or sometimes as ''Chicago'') is a style guide for American English published since 1906 by the University of Chicago Press. Its 17 editions have prescribed writi ...

, JBL Sound Systems,

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), ...

Robert Bringhurst 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 Eleme ...

;

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, known for its encyclopedic collection of art from nearly every continent and culture, and especially for its extensive collection of Asian art. In 2007, ''Time'' magaz ...

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

, the

Saint Louis Art Museum The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is one of the principal U.S. art museums, with paintings, sculptures, cultural objects, and ancient masterpieces from all corners of the world. Its three-story building stands in Forest Park in St. Louis, Mi ...

, Shakespeare's Words: A Glossary and Language Companion by

David Crystal David Crystal, (born 6 July 1941) is a British linguist, academic, and prolific author best known for his works on linguistics and the English language. Family Crystal was born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, on 6 July 1941 after his mother had ...

, as well as

Martin Majoor's Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austral ...

official website. It is also used by

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for ga ...

for Sidebar/Table Body in Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Modules as well as Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Character Sheets.

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 ...

. ''

''. 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,

External links

FF Scala microsite
A website fully dedicated to FF Scala
''Writing With Scala''
Typespecimen by Ellen Lupton (2005)
www.martinmajoor.com
Martin Majoor's official website
''My Type Design Philosophy''
by Martin Majoor (2002)

Interview by

Peter Biľak Peter Biľak (; born 1973 in Czechoslovakia) is a Slovak graphic and typeface designer, based in The Hague, The Netherlands. He works in the field of editorial, graphic, and type design; teaches typeface design at the postgraduate course Type ...

(2003)
''Types and Characters: Martin Majoor''
Brochure by Nina Völlink (2007)
Martin Majoor
on fontshop.com
Uses of FF Scala
Scala Sans Scala Sans Scala Sans Unified serif and sans-serif typeface families Typefaces and fonts introduced in 1993 de:FF Scala Sans {{typ-stub