With Syntax™, Hans Eduard Meier wanted to prove that even a grotesque can be eminently legible. Even today, the prejudice that sanserifed typefaces are less legible than serifed typefaces has stubbornly remained. This conservative attitude definitely originates with unsuccessful attempts by Meier’s predecessors. Paul Renner began Futura® with essentially similar intentions, but followed the dogmatism of the Bauhaus too much. Even Otl Aicher never managed to prove that his Rotis® Sans was as [...]
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Almost half a century has passed since Hans Eduard Meier drew the first pencil sketches in 1955 which would provide the basis for the forms and scope of today´s Linotype Syntax typeface family. Considering the technical developments which led from hot metal composition to digitization, the passage of time is a strong affirmation of the timelessness of the Syntax design. The five weights of Syntax Antiqua were the last hot metal types produced by the German type foundry Stempel AG. The [...]
Syntax™ was designed by Swiss typographer Hans Eduard Meier, and issued in 1968 by the D. Stempel AG type foundry as their last hot metal type family. Meier used an unusual rationale in the design of this sans serif typeface; it has the shapes of humanist letters or oldstyle types (such as Sabon), but with a modified monoline treatment. The original drawings were done in 1954; first by writing the letters with a brush, then redrawing their essential linear forms, and finally adding balanced amounts of weight to the skeletons to produce optically monoline letterforms. Meier wanted to subtly express the rhythmical dynamism of written letters and at the same time produce a legible sans serif typeface. This theme was supported by using a very slight slope in the roman, tall ascenders, terminals at right angles to stroke direction, caps with classical proportions, and the humanist style a and g. The original foundry metal type was digitized in 1989 to make this family of four romans and one italic. Meier completely reworked Syntax in 2000, completing an expanded and improved font family that is available exclusively from Linotype GmbH as Linotype Syntax.
Syntax is a trademark of Linotype Corp. registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain other jurisdictions in the name of Linotype Corp. or its licensee Linotype GmbH.
Quality features
The Platinum Collection is the exclusive series of optimized classic typefaces from the Linotype Library.
XSF-Fonts are OpenType or TrueType fonts with an excellent appearance on screen at small sizes or low resolutions – especially engineered and optimized for exceptionally readable typefaces on computer screens using Microsoft® Windows operating systems.
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