Akko® font family
Designed by Akira Kobayashi in 2011
Early in his career, Kobayashi drew original typefaces for the likes of Adobe, ITC, FontFont, Linotype and TypeBox. In the spring of 2001 he joined Linotype as type director and for the next several years collaborated with Adrian Frutiger and Hermann Zapf in the modernization and re-issuing of their earlier designs. Kobayashi's skill and design sensitivity contributed to the success of these typefaces and his creative prowess had a profound influence on the designs - but the end product was not totally his.
For the last several months, however, he has been working on a new and original typeface family. Picture an industrial strength typeface like the Isonorm™ design. Now blend this with an organic design like the Cooper Black™ typeface. It was the idea of the fusion of these two design concepts that inspired Kobayashi to draw Akko.
My initial idea was to create a sanserif type with a 'soft-focus' effect,"" says Kobayashi. ""From here, the design evolved into two families, the robust and structured sanserif Akko and soft and friendly Akko Rounded.""
The versions of Akko are available in six weights ranging from thin to black - each with complementary Italics. The family is available as a suite of OpenType™ Pro fonts, allowing for the automatic insertion of small caps, ligatures and alternate characters. Pro fonts also offer an extended character set supporting most Central European and many Eastern European languages.
Akko Rounded Thin
Windows menu name: Akko Rounded Pro Thin
PostScript name: AkkoRoundedPro-Thin
PostScript full name: Akko Rounded Pro Thin
Denominators
Tag: dnom
Function: Replaces selected figures which follow a slash with denominator figures. In the string 11/17 selected by the user, the application turns the 17 into denominators when the user applies the fraction feature.
Fractions
Tag: frac
Function: Replaces figures separated by a slash with 'common' (diagonal) fractions. The user enters 3/4 in a recipe and gets the threequarters fraction.
Standard Ligatures
Tag: liga
Function: Replaces a sequence of glyphs with a single glyph which is preferred for typographic purposes. This feature covers the ligatures which the designer/manufacturer judges should be used in normal conditions. The glyph for ffl replaces the sequence of glyphs f f l.
Lining Figures
Tag: lnum
Function: This feature changes selected figures from oldstyle to the default lining form. The user invokes this feature in order to get lining figures, which fit better with all-capital text. Various characters designed to be used with figures may also be covered by this feature. In cases where lining figures are the default form, this feature would undo previous substitutions.
Localized Forms
Tag: locl
Function: Many scripts used to write multiple languages over wide geographical areas have developed localized variant forms of specific letters, which are used by individual literary communities. For example, a number of letters in the Bulgarian and Serbian alphabets have forms distinct from their Russian counterparts and from each other. In some cases the localized form differs only subtly from the script 'norm', in others the forms are radically distinct. This feature enables localized forms of glyphs to be substituted for default forms. The user applies this feature to text to enable localized Bulgarian forms of Cyrillic letters; alternatively, the feature might enable localized Russian forms in a Bulgarian manufactured font in which the Bulgarian forms are the default characters.
Numerators
Tag: numr
Function: Replaces selected figures which precede a slash with numerator figures, and replaces the typographic slash with the fraction slash. In the string 11/17 selected by the user, the application turns the 11 into numerators, and the slash into a fraction slash when the user applies the fraction feature.
Old Style Figures
Tag: onum
Function: This feature changes selected figures from the default lining style to oldstyle form. The user invokes this feature to get oldstyle figures, which fit better into the flow of normal upper- and lowercase text. Various characters designed to be used with figures may also have oldstyle versions.
Ordinals
Tag: ordn
Function: Replaces default alphabetic glyphs with the corresponding ordinal forms for use after figures. One exception to the follows-a-figure rule is the numero character (U+2116), which is actually a ligature substitution, but is best accessed through this feature. The user applies this feature to turn 2.o into 2.o (abbreviation for secundo).
Proportional Figures
Tag: pnum
Function: Replaces figure glyphs set on uniform (tabular) widths with corresponding glyphs set on glyph-specific (proportional) widths. Tabular widths will generally be the default, but this cannot be safely assumed. Of course this feature would not be present in monospaced designs. The user may apply this feature to get even spacing for lining figures used as dates in an all-cap headline.
Scientific Inferiors
Tag: sinf
Function: Replaces lining or oldstyle figures with inferior figures (smaller glyphs which sit lower than the standard baseline, primarily for chemical or mathematical notation). May also replace lowercase characters with alphabetic inferiors. The application can use this feature to automatically access the inferior figures (more legible than scaled figures).
Superscript
Tag: sups
Function: Replaces lining or oldstyle figures with superior figures (primarily for footnote indication), and replaces lowercase letters with superior letters (primarily for abbreviated French titles). The application can use this feature to automatically access the superior figures (more legible than scaled figures) for footnotes, or the user can apply it to Mssr to get the classic form.
Tabular Figures
Tag: tnum
Function: Replaces figure glyphs set on proportional widths with corresponding glyphs set on uniform (tabular) widths. Tabular widths will generally be the default, but this cannot be safely assumed. Of course this feature would not be present in monospaced designs. The user may apply this feature to get oldstyle figures to align vertically in a column.
Stylistic Alternates
Tag: salt
Function: Many fonts contain alternate glyph designs for a purely esthetic effect; these don't always fit into a clear category like swash or historical. As in the case of swash glyphs, there may be more than one alternate form. This feature replaces the default forms with the stylistic alternates. The user applies this feature to Industria to get the alternate form of g.
Subscript
Tag: subs
Function: The "subs" feature may replace a default glyph with a subscript glyph, or it may combine a glyph substitution with positioning adjustments for proper placement. Recommended implementation: First, a single or contextual substitution lookup implements the subscript glyph (GSUB lookup type 1). Then, if the glyph needs repositioning, an application may apply a single adjustment, pair adjustment, or contextual adjustment positioning lookup to modify its position.
Discretionary Ligatures
Tag: dlig
Function: Replaces a sequence of glyphs with a single glyph which is preferred for typographic purposes. This feature covers those ligatures which may be used for special effect, at the user's preference. The glyph for ct replaces the sequence of glyphs c t, or U+322E (Kanji ligature for "Friday") replaces the sequence U+91D1 U+66DC U+65E5.
Sylistic Set 1
Tag: ss01
Function: In addition to, or instead of, stylistic alternatives of individual glyphs (see 'salt' feature), some fonts may contain sets of stylistic variant glyphs corresponding to portions of the character set, e.g. multiple variants for lowercase letters in a Latin font. Glyphs in stylistic sets may be designed to harmonise visually, interract in particular ways, or otherwise work together. Examples of fonts including stylistic sets are Zapfino Linotype and Adobe's Poetica. Individual features numbered sequentially with the tag name convention 'ss01' 'ss02' 'ss03' . 'ss20' provide a mechanism for glyphs in these sets to be associated via GSUB lookup indexes to default forms and to each other, and for users to select from available stylistic sets.
These fonts support the Basic Latin character set. Each font is Unicode™ encoded, and available in d
Tag: Basic Latin
Function: These fonts support the Basic Latin character set. Each font is Unicode™ encoded, and available in different formats. Please review the product information for each font to ensure it will meet your requirements.
These fonts support the Latin Extended character set. Each font is Unicode™ encoded, and available i
Tag: Latin Extended
Function: These fonts support the Latin Extended character set. Each font is Unicode™ encoded, and available in different formats. Please review the product information for each font to ensure it will meet your requirements.
