FF Scala Sans is a humanist sans-serif

typeface A typeface (or font family) is a design of Letter (alphabet), letters, Numerical digit, numbers and other symbols, to be used in printing or for electronic display. Most typefaces include variations in size (e.g., 24 point), weight (e.g., light, ...

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 of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

, the Netherlands. It was designed as a companion to Majoor's earlier serif old style typeface FF Scala, designed in 1990. It is similar in appearance to Joanna Sans. Like Eric Gill's 1927–30 design

Gill Sans Gill Sans is a Sans-serif#Humanist, humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Eric Gill and released by the British branch of Monotype Imaging, Monotype in 1928. It is based on Edward Johnston's 1916 "Johnston (typeface), Underground Alphabet", t ...

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 (constituenc ...

, 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. In 2023, the font, alongside its companion FF Scala, were reissued as "Scala Sans" and "Scala", respectively on Majoor's own independent type foundry, which was founded in 2021.

Usage

The

Los Angeles Metro The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA), branded as Metro, is the county agency that plans, operates, and coordinates funding for most of the Transportation in Los Angeles, public transportation system in Los Ang ...

and the Hungarian weekly magazine

Magyar Narancs ''Magyar Narancs'' (, ''Hungarian Orange'') is a weekly Liberalism, 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 ...

prominently use the typeface. FF Scala Sans is less commonly used by

Kwik Trip Kwik Trip is a chain of convenience stores founded in 1965 that has locations throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan under the name Kwik Trip, and in Illinois, Iowa, and South Dakota under the name Kwik Star. The ...

, most notably some of its signage. It is also used by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, as well as the fifteenth edition of

The Chicago Manual of Style ''The Chicago Manual of Style'' (''CMOS'') is a style guide for American English published since 1906 by the University of Chicago Press. Its 18 editions (the most recent in 2024) have prescribed writing and citation styles widely used in publ ...

, 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. ...

Robert Bringhurst Robert Bringhurst Appointments to the Order of Canada (2013). (born 1946) is a CanadianWong (1999). poet, typographer and author. He has translated substantial works from Haida and Navajo and from classical Greek and Arabic. He wrote ''The El ...

;

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art gallery, art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri, known for its encyclopedic collection of art from nearly every continent and culture, and especially for its extensive collection of A ...

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

, the

Saint Louis Art Museum The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is an art museum located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. With paintings, sculptures, cultural objects, and ancient masterpieces from around the world, its three-story building stands in Forest Park in ...

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

David Crystal David Crystal, (born 6 July 1941) is a British linguist who works on the linguistics of the English language. Crystal studied English at University College London and has lectured at Bangor University and the University of Reading. He was aw ...

, and Martin Majoor's official website. It is also used by

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (WotC or Wizards) is an American game Publishing, publisher, most of which are based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science-fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail game stores. In 1999, toy ...

for Sidebar/Table Body in Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Modules as well as Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Character Sheets. For a number of years between the mid-2000s and until the mid-2010s, the typeface had been used by

Whole Foods Market Whole Foods Market, Inc. (colloquially referred to as simply Whole Foods) is an American multinational supermarket chain store, chain headquartered in Austin, Texas, which sells products free from Hydrogenated fat, hydrogenated fats and artificia ...

as a secondary typeface.

Similar fonts

The fonts Freight Sans
Ysabeau
an
Alegreya Sans
are all humanist sans serif fonts similar in appearance to FF Scala Sans.

References

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 1946) is a CanadianWong (1999). poet, typographer and author. He has translated substantial works from Haida and Navajo and from classical Greek and Arabic. He wrote '' The ...

. ''

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

Peter Biľak Peter Biľak (Slovak pronunciation: Help:IPA/Slovak, �peter ˈbiʎak born 29 March 1973) is a Slovaks, Dutch-Slovak designer based in The Hague, Netherlands. He works in the Graphic design, editorial, Graphic design, graphic, and type desig ...

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

Usage

Similar fonts

References

Bibliography

External links