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View Full Version : The new Leica font

varjag
11-29-2007, 02:50
Am I the only one who finds the new style of script on modern Leica gear (R8/R9, MP, last generation of lenses) very cool?

Any designer members here who can recognize the font used?
varjag
11-29-2007, 03:37
Hm, it looks close.. google search also suggested something called "eurostile" which is also quite close.. however the way e.g. '4' is written is wrong on both.

Another site suggests DIN font, doesn't look too far too?

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/fontfont/ff-din/regular/

I wouldn't be at all surprised if they had a font designed for them specifically.
john neal
11-29-2007, 04:25
Looks like a customised version of our old friend Helvetica to me - very Bauhaus!
Prosaic
11-29-2007, 06:24
Leica uses CorporateS for printed matter, Isonorm capitals on their lenses and cameras.

I´m a graphic designer.
varjag
11-29-2007, 06:31
Snap! Isonorm looks like it yeah.
mr_phillip
11-29-2007, 07:08
Before Isonorm, Leica used to use a proprietary face called Leitz-Norm on all cameras and lenses, and I believe that's what the new Summarits will wear.
palec
11-29-2007, 07:22
It does not look like Isonorm http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/urw/isonorm/familytree.html

The font used on recent Leica products (except Summarit) is more rectangular, just compare E39 text for example. I have no idea what's that font.
okto
11-29-2007, 07:40
Isonorm heats me up in my inmost places. I love that typeface to bleeding death.

Isonorm, Helvetica Neue (full set), Futura (full set), ITC Garamond, and Century (not Century Gothic) are my desert island typefaces.
rogue_designer
11-29-2007, 07:51
It wouldn't surprise me if it's proprietary - they've certainly gone that route in the past. Isonorm is similar, as are a few drafting and OCR typefaces - they may have had something commissioned specifically for their machines (laser engraved? CNC?)

Trying to find a typeface commercially designed for press, when that isn't the medium and rendering method of this one, seems like a needle-in-a-haystack proposition.

Desert island faces: Full sets of Helvetica Neue, Minion, Jenson, Triplex, Chalet
Prosaic
11-29-2007, 08:16
It does not look like Isonorm http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/urw/isonorm/familytree.html

The font used on recent Leica products (except Summarit) is more rectangular, just compare E39 text for example. I have no idea what's that font.

I have contacted Leica about the font and will keep you updated, should I get a response.
aizan
11-29-2007, 13:24
i drew the numbers a while back for thumbs-up-what's-his-name, but never got around to vectorizing it. oh well...