Myriad (typeface)
![]() | |
Category | Sans-serif |
---|---|
Classification | Humanist |
Designer(s) | Robert Slimbach Carol Twombly |
Foundry | Adobe Type |
Myriad is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Robert Slimbach and Carol Twombly for Adobe Systems.
Myriad is easily recognized due to its special "y" descender (tail), slanting "e" cut, and rounded curves.
Variations
Myriad MM
Myriad was first issued in 1992 as a multiple master Type 1 font family, which worked with a compliant font renderer to allow the user to generate variations in a wide range of widths and weights. Myriad MM was discontinued in 2003.
Myriad (Type 1)
This PostScript 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 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, and oldstyle figures.
Myriad Pro originally included thirty fonts in three widths and five weights each, with complementary italics. A "semi-condensed" width was added several years later, 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 7.0 and 8.x. In Adobe Reader 9 they 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.
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.
Adobe Heiti
Adobe Heiti is a simplified Chinese typeface that borrows its Latin glyphs from Myriad. It is included with Adobe Illustrator CS3[1], Adobe Reader 8 Simplified Chinese font pack, Adobe Creative Suite 4.0[2].
Usage
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/IPod_Myriad.svg/250px-IPod_Myriad.svg.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6b/ANA_business_staggered.svg/250px-ANA_business_staggered.svg.png)
Since the launch of the eMac in 2002, Myriad has replaced Apple Garamond as Apple Inc.'s corporate font. It is now used in all of Apple's marketing and on its products (See Apple typography). More recent iterations of the iPod (from the iPod photo onward) used Podium Sans, which has similarities with Myriad (as opposed to Chicago), for its user interface. However, the iPod Touch and iPhone 3G replaced Podium Sans with Helvetica. A different humanist sans-serif typeface, Lucida Grande, is used as the system font for Apple's Mac OS X operating system. Myriad was included with the third generation of iPod.[3]
Myriad is also used in the corporate identities of Wells Fargo, Wal-Mart, and Modern Telegraph, as the primary headline typefaces of those companies.
The metro company of Hong Kong, MTR, uses Myriad as its corporate identity font. KCRC (a former rail transport company in Hong Kong) developed Casey in 1996, which uses Myriad Condensed for English and Formata Condensed for numbers. Today the KCRC is part of the MTR and Myrid is used on much of the MTR.
The font was adopted in 2005 by the London Borough of Redbridge as its primary font for use in publications, as part of the overall rebrand of the council.
Myriad Black is one of two official standard fonts of the University of Virginia[4] and Loyola University Chicago[5].
Myriad is also one of the two official standard fonts of Cambridge University[6].
CBS affiliate KPHO uses Myriad for their third-lower graphics
A variety of fonts from the Myriad family are used on most CT Transit schedules.
All Nippon Airways, an airline out of Japan, 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.[7]
Awards
Myriad Pro won bukva:raz! 2001 under the Greek and Cyrillic categories.[8]
Myriad Pro Greek won TDC2 2000 (Type Directors Club Type Design Competition 2000) in the Text/display type systems category.[9]
References
- ^ Adobe Illustrator CS3 Read Me
- ^ Fonts supplied with Adobe Creative Suite 4.0
- ^ "Modifying Apple's Myriad Pro". Retrieved 2008-10-03.
- ^ "Usage Guidelines, U.Va. Logo". University of Virginia. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
- ^ "Loyola University Chicago Brand & Graphic Standards" (PDF). Loyola University Chicago. Retrieved 2009-07-19.
- ^ "Guidlines: Typography" (PDF). Retrieved 2009-09-25.
- ^ http://www.ana.co.jp/int/svc/en/new_brand_2010/
- ^ "News: bukva:raz! Results". Type Directors Club. 2001-12-02. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
- ^ "TDC2 2000: The Competition". Type Directors Club. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
External links
- Typowiki: Myriad
- Adobe Systems information on Myriad multiple masters
- A side by side comparison of the Frutiger and Myriad typefaces
- Styles of the Myriad font family at Linotype.com
- Adobe - Fonts: Myriad Condensed
- Adobe - Fonts: Myriad Pro
- Adobe - Fonts: Myriad Wild
- Adobe - Fonts: Myriad Wild Std
- Adobe - Fonts: Kozuka Gothic Pro
Further reading
- Blackwell, Lewis (2004). 20th Century Type. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10073-6.
- Fiedl, Frederich, Nicholas Ott and Bernard Stein (1998). Typography: An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Through History. Black Dog & Leventhal. ISBN 1-57912-023-7.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Macmillan, Neil (2006). An A–Z of Type Designers. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-11151-7.