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Myriad is a
humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "human ...
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 s ...
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 thousands o ...
designed by Robert Slimbach and
Carol Twombly Carol Twombly (born June 13, 1959) is an American designer, best known for her type design. She worked as a type designer at Adobe Systems from 1988 through 1999, during which time she designed, or contributed to the design of, many typefaces, in ...
for
Adobe Systems Adobe Inc. ( ), originally called Adobe Systems Incorporated, is an American multinational computer software company incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in San Jose, California. It has historically specialized in software for the cre ...
. Myriad was intended as a neutral, general-purpose typeface that could fulfill a range of uses and have a form easily expandable by computer-aided design to a large range of weights and widths. Myriad is known for its usage by Apple Inc., replacing Apple Garamond as Apple's corporate font from April 29, 2002, to January 24, 2017. Myriad is easily distinguished from other sans-serif fonts due to its "y"
descender In typography and handwriting, a descender is the portion of a letter that extends below the baseline of a font. For example, in the letter ''y'', the descender is the "tail", or that portion of the diagonal line which lies below the ''v' ...
(tail) and slanting "e" cut.


Design

Myriad is a humanist sans-serif, a relatively informal design taking influences from handwriting. Its letterforms are open rather than "folded-up" on the nineteenth-century
grotesque 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 ...
model, and its sloped form is a " true italic" based on handwriting. The 'g' is single-storey and the 'M' has sloped sides on the model of
Roman square capitals Roman square capitals, also called ''capitalis monumentalis'', inscriptional capitals, elegant capitals and ''capitalis quadrata'', are an ancient Roman form of writing, and the basis for modern capital letters. Square capitals are characteriz ...
. As a family intended for body text and influenced by traditional book printing,
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 ...
are included as well as lining figures at cap height. Twombly described the design process as one of swapping ideas to create a "homogeneous" design but said that in retrospect she found the experience "too hard" to want to repeat. Myriad is similar to
Adrian Frutiger Adrian Johann Frutiger ( ; 24 May 1928 – 10 September 2015) was a Swiss typeface designer who influenced the direction of type design in the second half of the 20th century. His career spanned the hot metal, phototypesetting and digital ...
's famous Frutiger typeface, although the italic is a true italic unlike Frutiger's
oblique Oblique may refer to: * an alternative name for the character usually called a slash (punctuation) ( / ) *Oblique angle, in geometry *Oblique triangle, in geometry * Oblique lattice, in geometry * Oblique leaf base, a characteristic shape of the b ...
; Frutiger described it as "not badly done" but felt that the similarities had gone "a little too far". The later Segoe UI and
Corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...
are also similar. During the 1990s, Adobe developed a release of Myriad in the multiple master format, an ambitious format intended to allow the user to fine-tune weight, width and other characteristics of the design to their preferred form. The concept was not widely supported by third-party applications, and so most releases of Myriad have been in the form of separate font files. The concept has since been redeveloped as part of the
OpenType OpenType is a format for scalable computer fonts. It was built on its predecessor TrueType, retaining TrueType's basic structure and adding many intricate data structures for prescribing typographic behavior. OpenType is a registered trademark ...
variable fonts technology.


Variations


Myriad (Type 1)

This
PostScript PostScript (PS) is a page description language in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing realm. It is a dynamically typed, concatenative programming language. It was created at Adobe Systems by John Warnock, Charles Geschke, Do ...
Type 1 font family was released after the original Myriad MM. It initially included four fonts in two weights, with complementary italics. All these Type 1 versions supported the ISO-Adobe character set; all were discontinued in the early 2000s. ;Myriad Condensed: It was a condensed version, released around 1998. The condensed fonts comprise three weights, with complementary italics. ;Myriad Headline: A "Headline" version was also released, which has the weight of Myriad Bold, but slightly narrower.


Myriad Web

Myriad Web is a version of Myriad in TrueType font format, optimized for onscreen use. It supports Adobe CE and Adobe Western 2 character sets. Myriad Web comprises only five fonts: Myriad Web Pro Bold, Myriad Web Pro Regular, Myriad Web Pro Condensed Italic, Myriad Web Pro Condensed, Myriad Web Pro Italic. Myriad Web Pro is slightly wider than Myriad Pro, while the width of Myriad Web Pro Condensed is between Myriad Pro Condensed and Myriad Pro SemiCondensed. The family is bundled as part of the Adobe Web Type Pro font pack.


Myriad Pro

Myriad Pro is the
OpenType OpenType is a format for scalable computer fonts. It was built on its predecessor TrueType, retaining TrueType's basic structure and adding many intricate data structures for prescribing typographic behavior. OpenType is a registered trademark ...
version of the original Myriad font family. It first shipped in 2000, as Adobe moved towards the OpenType standard. Additional designers were Christopher Slye and Fred Brady. Compared to Myriad MM, it added support for Latin Extended, Greek, and Cyrillic characters, as well as oldstyle figures. Myriad Pro originally included thirty fonts in three widths and five weights each, with complementary italics. A "semi-condensed" width was added in early 2002, expanding the family to forty fonts in four widths and five weights each, with complementary italics. Myriad Pro Regular, Bold, Italic and Bold Italic are bundled with Adobe Reader 7 and 8. In Adobe Reader 9 and onwards, the fonts are included, but not installed in the system fonts directory.


Myriad Wild

Myriad Wild is an Adobe font package comprising the Myriad Sketch and Myriad Tilt fonts in Type 1 format. Myriad Sketch is a slightly irregular outline version of Myriad, while Myriad Tilt incorporates irregular stroke weight and paths. The family supports ISO-Adobe character set.


Myriad Wild Std

Myriad Wild Std is the OpenType version of Myriad Wild. It supports Adobe Western 2 character set.


MyriadCAD

MyriadCAD is included in Adobe Reader 9 and is thought to be an implementation of the ANSI CAD lettering. It is also available in the current Adobe Acrobat.


Myriad Currency

Myriad Currency is included in Adobe Reader 9 and is thought to be the company's embedded font for their currency typefaces. It can be found in the Fonts subfolder of the Resources folder under Adobe Reader 9 from the Program Files folder in the Local Hard Disk Drive.


Myriad Arabic

Myriad Arabic was designed by Robert Slimbach, with the help of Adobe's technical team as well as outside Arabic experts. The principal outside consultant was Dr. Mamoun Sakkal. Five weights of Myriad Arabic (which include Latin-alphabet characters) were licensed by Apple for inclusion with
macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...
, but must be manually enabled by the user.


Myriad Hebrew

Myriad Hebrew is an extension of Adobe's popular humanist sans-serif typeface Myriad, bringing the sensibility of Myriad into another language and another writing system. Myriad Hebrew is one of the most extensive families of Hebrew typefaces available today, comprising twenty different digital fonts: four weights, each with two italic complements; plus an informal cursive version, also in four weights, with both upright and slanted variants. Myriad Hebrew was designed by Robert Slimbach, with the help of Adobe's technical team as well as outside Hebrew experts. The principal outside consultant was Scott-Martin Kosofsky.


Myriad Set Pro

The Myriad Set Pro font family was first embedded into Apple's corporate website. Myriad Set Pro is available in Bold, Medium, Thin, Text, Semibold and Ultralight weights with corresponding italics, and could be found in most of Apple's websites until 2017, when it was replaced with Apple's custom typeface
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
.


Kozuka Gothic

Kozuka Gothic is a Japanese typeface, designed as a sans-serif companion to Kozuka Mincho family. The Japanese letters were designed by Masahiko Kozuka and Adobe's Japanese type design team. The Latin letters in Kozuka Gothic were adapted from Myriad.


Kozuka Gothic Std

It is an OpenType version of the Kozuka Gothic font family.


Kozuka Gothic Pro (2001)

It is a version of Kozuka Gothic with Adobe-Japan1-4 character set support.


Kozuka Gothic Pr6N (2008)

It is a version of Kozuka Gothic updated to support Adobe-Japan1-6 and JIS X 0213:2004 character sets. Kozuka Gothic Pr6N was shipped with
Adobe Creative Suite 4 Adobe Creative Suite (CS) is a discontinued software suite of graphic design, video editing, and web development application software, applications developed by Adobe Systems. The last of the Creative Suite versions, Adobe Creative Suite 6 (CS6) ...
. Retail versions began available as of 2011.


Adobe Heiti

Adobe Heiti is a simplified Chinese typeface that borrows its Latin glyphs from Myriad. It is included with
Adobe Illustrator Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor and design program developed and marketed by Adobe Inc. Originally designed for the Apple Macintosh, development of Adobe Illustrator began in 1985. Along with Creative Cloud (Adobe's shift to month ...
CS3, Adobe Reader 8 Simplified Chinese font pack, Adobe Creative Suite 4.0.


Adobe Fan Heiti

Changes from Adobe Heiti includes uniform stroke widths for Chinese characters.


Usage

*From the launch of the eMac in 2002, Myriad replaced Apple Garamond as Apple Inc.'s corporate font. It was once used in all of Apple's marketing and on its products (''See
Apple typography Apple Inc. uses a large variety of typefaces in its marketing, operating systems, and industrial design with each product cycle. These change throughout the years with Apple's change of style in Apple Inc.#Products, their products. This is evid ...
''), but it has now been replaced by
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
. More recent iterations of the iPod (from the
iPod photo The iPod Classic (stylized and marketed as iPod classic and formerly iPod Video or just iPod) is a discontinued portable media player created and formerly marketed by Apple Inc. There were six generations of the iPod Classic, as well as a sp ...
onward) used
Podium Sans Podium Sans is the typeface used on all models of iPod with color displays previous to the iPod lineup refresh on September 5, 2007. When the iPod photo was first announced Apple claimed that the device featured a "new Myriad typeface," stati ...
, which has similarities with Myriad (as opposed to
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
), for its user interface. However, the iPod Touch and iPhone 3G replaced Podium Sans with
Helvetica Helvetica (originally Neue Haas Grotesk) is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann. Helvetica is a neo-grotesque design, one influenced by the famous 19th century (1890s) ...
, which became the system font for OS X starting with
OS X Yosemite OS X Yosemite ( ; version 10.10) is the eleventh major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. OS X Yosemite was announced and released to developers on June 2, 2014, at WWDC 2014 and rel ...
. Myriad was included with the third generation of
iPod The iPod is a discontinued series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001, about months after the Macintosh version of iTunes wa ...
. *Myriad Black is one of two official standard fonts of the
University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...
and
Loyola University Chicago Loyola University Chicago (Loyola or LUC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, Loyola is one of the largest Catholic universities in the United States. Its namesake is Saint Ignat ...
. *Myriad is also one of the two official standard fonts of
Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
. *Myriad is the official sans-serif font of
University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 ma ...
. *Myriad Pro is the wordmark logo font for
The University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 coll ...
and the primary typeface for
University of Nevada, Reno The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded on October 12 ...
and the
University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottaw ...
and Foxtranslate. *Myriad Roman, Myriad Italic, and Myriad Headline are primary sans-serif fonts at
The George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , presid ...
. *Two variants of Myriad MM are used as the primary typefaces for the
Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg The Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg (german: Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg) is a university located in Oldenburg, Germany. It is one of the most important and highly regarded educational facilities in northwestern Germa ...
(Germany). *
All Nippon Airways , also known as ANA (''Ē-enu-ē'') or is an airline in Japan. Its headquarters are located in Shiodome City Center in the Shiodome area of Minato ward of Tokyo. It operates services to both domestic and international destinations and had m ...
, a Japanese airline, also uses the Myriad font for their new international cabin class logos as well as promotional materials of its new "Inspiration of Japan" in-flight service concept. * The Order of St John adopted the new St John logo in 2005, choosing Myriad Regular (Roman) and Myriad Bold as the approved organization's typeface for all external artwork, communications and publications. They have been using the new logo since 2005, and the organization's typeface since 2008 in their external publications. Establishments are following the order to change their organization's logo to the new St John logo and using the new typeface, like St John New Zealand,
St John Ambulance in Wales St John Ambulance Cymru (previously known as St John Cymru-Wales, officially known as The Priory for Wales of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem) is a charity (registered in England and Wales) dedicated to the teachi ...
,
Hong Kong St. John Ambulance Hong Kong St. John Ambulance () is a charitable organisation with a long history stretching back over a century and has been serving the community since 1884. Adhered to its motto, "For the Service of Mankind", the organisation is dedicated to ...
and The Order of St John USA. *Myriad has been used since 2006 on vehicle registration plates in Norway. *
Korail The Korea Railroad Corporation ( Korean: 한국철도공사, Hanja: ), branded as KORAIL (코레일, officially changed to in November 2019), is the national railway operator in South Korea. Currently, KORAIL is a public corporation, manag ...
, the national railroad company of the Republic of Korea (
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
), uses Myriad extensively in its station name plates. *The
European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...
uses Myriad typeface in all printed publications, as part of its visual identity. *Myriad Pro is used by the Hong Kong
MTR The Mass Transit Railway (MTR) is a major public transport network serving :Hong Kong. Operated by the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL), it consists of heavy rail, light rail, and feeder bus service centred on a 10-line rapid transit network ...
as part of its corporate identity. Station names and wayfinding signs use the font.


Awards

Myriad Pro won bukva:raz! 2001 under the Greek and Cyrillic categories. Myriad Pro Greek won TDC2 2000 ( Type Directors Club Type Design Competition 2000) in the Text/display type systems category.


References


Further reading

* * *


External links


Myriad Pro at Fontspring
- Adobe's preferred reseller
A side by side comparison of the Frutiger and Myriad typefaces
*https://wwwimages2.adobe.com/content/dam/acom/en/products/type/pdfs/MyriadPro.pdf {{DEFAULTSORT:Myriad (Typeface) Apple Inc. typefaces Adobe typefaces Humanist sans-serif typefaces Typefaces and fonts introduced in 1992 Typefaces with text figures Typefaces designed by Robert Slimbach Typefaces designed by Carol Twombly