Wayfinding Sans Pro THE ULTIMATE SIGNAGE TYPEFACE Legibility redefined. Gates A1–A7 Pharmacy & First Aid Aankomst NO trespassING Airport Lounge Departures Emergency Exit Check-in Area Passkontrolle STAFF ONLY! Duty-free shops Lost & Found Stationnement Rental Cars waITING AREA Air Lounge Club members only. DESIGNED BY: RALF HERRMANN, SEBASTIAN NAGEL OTF STYLES: 20 (2 WEIGHTS, 3 WIdtHS) LATIN EXTENDED, GREEK, CYRILLIC CHARACTERS PER STYLE: >800 DESTINATION: SIGNAGE FOR AIRPOrts, ROADS, PARKS, OFFICE BUILDINGS, HOSPITALS, MALLS, LIBRARIES … Amsterdam SnæfellsjökullBirmingham MagdeburgBirmingham 36 km Можайск 6 Birmingham Ηράκλειο Gare de l’Est České Budějovice Sheffield Square Goetheplatz auf engem Raum LEXIngton AV. Mind the Gap! Железнодорожный Faubourg Montmartre Spielwiese Karlův most Picadilly Circus Eight Mile Road Διδυμότειχο Muzeum Śląskie Alexanderplatz oranIenstraẞE THE PUBLIC LIbrary ↑ Non Fiction Arts, Human Sciences, Business Printers & Photocopiers ← Conference Room A “Michelangelo” Study Spaces A–C Journal Archive Special Collections ↘ Wardrobe | Restrooms Parking Level –1 Wayfinding Sans is not just “yet another signage typeface”. This Six Years project is unique in many ways. Ralf Herrmann, the designer of of Research and Wayfinding Sans, started this projects with extensive field stud- ies, driving tens of thousands of miles to explore the legibilty of Development road signage typeface in dozens of countries around the world. After building his own theoretic framework of relevant legibility parameters, the design process used a unique custom real-time simulation software, which could simulate difficult reading con- ditions (distance, fog, halation, positive/negative contrast) while the letters where actually designed. This process made it possible to optimize even the tiniest details of each letter for maximum legibility. Being made specifically for wayfinding purposes, this type fam- ily does not compromise on any aspect of legibility—and yet, the typeface is a beautiful, clean and modern sans serif. With its broad language support and the large number of available styles it is perfectly suitable for any possible signage project anywhere on the world. Superior legibility. In an independent empirical study at the University of Applied Leseentfernung SciencesResultat “htw” in Berlin different typefaces where recently test- in Abhängigkeit von Versal- & x-Höhe ed whenDie Proportionen used on vonsigns Versal- and & x-HöheWayfinding Sans Pro (bold extended) Empirically proven. beeinflussen die Leserlichkeit. Bei der Betrachtung der Leseentfernung beider Versuche, wird was the winner in all conducted tests, being significantly more deutlich, dass die Proportionen der Versalhöhe und der x-Höhe entscheidend die Leserlichkeit beeinflussen. Denn bei gleich- bleibender Versalhöhe sind die getesteten Schriften, deren x-Höhe größer als 69 % der Versalhöhe ist, bereits aus weiteren Entfern- legible and therefore superior to all other styles of the tested ungen lesbar als Schriften mit kleinerer x-Höhe. Bei gleicher x-Höhe sind Schriften mit einer größeren Versalhöhe aus weiteren Entfernungen lesbar. Dies geht bei den Schriften jedoch typefaces—among them typical signage typefaces like Frutiger, mit deutlich höheren Punktgrößen einher. DIN 1451, Johnston Underground and Futura. > 69 % x-Höhe gleiche Versalhöhe 69 % Identische Werte 67 % Leseentfernung < 67 %Mittelwert Leseentfernung x-Höhe = < 67 % x-Höhe x-Höhe = > 69 % in m Ø x-Höhe besser lesbar 67–69 % gleiche Versalhöhe besser lesbar gleiche x-Höhe 35 34 aller getesteten Schriften 33 32 31 35 30 g in m 34 Leesentfernung ernun bei gleicher Versalhöhe entf 33 Minimalwert Die Grafik zeigt die Mittelwerte sowie die Minimalwerte aller neun 29 Lese Leesentfernung 28 bei gleicher x-Höhe 32 getesteten Schriften innerhalb der verschiedenen Ebenen. Dabei 27 ing Sans zeigt die Futura im Vergleich zwischen gleicher Versalhöhe und Wayfi nd 31 oman Arial Arial er LT R gleicher x-Höhe von 1,67 m in Ebene 1 den größten Unterschied auf. Futura Frutig Swift LT Std Swift nd Undergrou 30 Franklin Gothic Franklin ton Wayfinding Sans Wayfinding s DIN Mittelschrift hn Die Richtwerte der DIN 1450 liegen zwar in der Regel weit hinter Roman LT Frutiger o P22 J Arial Garamond Premiere Pro den durchschnittlichen Leseweiten, der Vergleich mit den Minimal- Underground P22 Johnston ittelschrift DIN M 29 werten belegt aber, dass die Richtwerte der DIN auch Personen hic Medium in Got ankl mit Sehschwächen berücksichtigt. Fr Futura Source: Eine Untersuchung zur Lerserlichkeit im öffentlichen Raum. 28 er Pro Juli 2011, HTW Berlin. Sven Neumann, Betreut durch Prof. Florian Adler, Prof. Daniela Hensel d Premi http://kd.htw-berlin.de/studienprojekte/abschlussarbeiten/leserlichkeit-von-schriften/ amon Gar d Swift LT St 27 26 25 Richtwerte DIN 1450 1 Schriftgröße 49 mm bei guter Lesebedingung 2 Schriftgröße 20 mm bei guter Lesebedingung 24 3 Schriftgröße 5 mm bei guter Lesebedingung 23 Farbindex o r d m P n u r u i Ebene 1 Versalhöhe 49 mm e 22 o d i m r e g m M r n e i e r ft c d Ebene 1 Ø x-Höhe 33,825 mm i i d P t r g h S n n d t h a n c U o T n s s L o G m u l n n Ebene 2 Versalhöhe 20 mm o ft o a m n a n e t i i t r R a S t l r s r i w u k T g e 21 a t n S L M n f u G h Ebene 2 Ø x-Höhe 13,794 mm a n i t r l F o r N e d J a I n F i g n i r D 2 e t fi 2 A e u Ebene 3 Versalhöhe 5 mm y P r s a F e W L Ebene 3 Ø x-Höhe 3,452 mm 20 0 19 1 3 Minimalwert 18 2 17 3 16 16 4 1 15 Mittelwert 5 2 14 6 6 13 7 12 8 11 9 10 Minimalwert Mittelwert To increase the possible viewing distance, the skeleton of the let- Designed for ters of a signage typeface need to be generic and familiar but recognizability also unmistakable. And this is exactly how Wayfinding Sans Pro was designed from the ground up. aiy Optimized distinguishability is not so much an issue with print Designed for typefaces, which are supposed to be read at an ideal reading dis- distinguishability tance. But when type is read under difficult viewing condition, letter differenciation becomes crucial and can make a big differ- ence. Geometric designs might look clean and simple and therefore promise a good legibility, but actually, the opposite is true: under difficult viewing conditions, the simple geometric designs per- form poorly, because they don’t provide the structural difference to achieve a good distinguishability. agq Polish road signage typeface (top) Wayfinding Sans (bottom) agq Wayfinding Sans takes special care of letters which are easily misread. By making the differences of these letters more promi- nent, the legibility can be improved dramatically. f l t CG OQ flt Dutch road signage typeface (top) French road signage typeface (top) German road signage typeface (top) Wayfinding Sans (bottom) Wayfinding Sans (bottom) Wayfinding Sans (bottom) The letters of sans serif print typefaces like Helvetica are sup- posed to look as uniform as possible and should create an even color on the page. But what might be desirable in print, can de- crease the legibility when used for signage. BR 1Il Helvetica (top) Wayfinding Sans (bottom) Figures are usually designed in a way, so they can blend in with the Figures optimized regular letters. But the figures of Wayfinding Sans are optimized for signage use for the requirements of signage use: maximum distinguishability and lining tabular design. Oldstyle and proportional figures are available as well as OpenType features. CODE: OX0AT2 Is it a capital letter O or a zero? You can’t always tell for sure in some typefaces. The difference is obvious in Wayfinding Sans and if necessary, you can turn on the OpenType feature “Slashed Zero“ to increase the differenciation even more. Weimar 14 km Berlin 319 km Hamburg 526 km Diacritical marks are an important part of many languages using Diacritical marks: the Latin script. Again, what might be desirable in print, might details that matter not work for signage. On signs the diacritical marks must be un- mistakable in their design and prominent in their size, because such separated letter parts will be the first that become illegible or even invisible when viewed from a distance. Xàáâãäç Xàáâãäç Xàáâãäç British road signage typeface (top) Wayfinding Sans Polish road signage typeface (bottom) Entering and positioning arrows along with text in a signage layout Arrows, can be a time-consuming task. But not so with Wayfinding Sans the easy way Pro: The arrows can be easily typed along with the text. Just acti- vate the Stylistic Set and type the appropriate code. These codes follow a simple naming scheme based on the cardinal directions: “hyphen hyphen n” will create an arrow pointing up (“North”). Add an “e” for East and the arrow will point North-East. It’s that simple! And if the typical 8 directions are not sufficient for your project: Wayfinding Sans also offers arrows for targets which are located around a corner or can only be reached by turning around. ↰↱↲↳⬎⬐⬏⬑ ↶↷--in--out--3s--3n ←↑→↓↖↗↘↙ An arrow pointing upwards can mean “go straight ahead” or “go Pointing up? up the stairs/escalator”. But what to do if both directions are re- Or straight ahead? quired on one sign? Not to worry! Wayfinding Sans contains an optional 3D arrow for “straight ahead”. --3n Victoria Line Wayfinding Sans Pro uses the naming conventions of typical print A versatile family fonts, but the main style of this font family is actually the Bold with 20 styles Extended. It provides the best performance and legibility when used on signs.