Uniwidth typefaces for interface design
By: Lisa Staudinger
Tags: UI, Typography, Variable Fonts, UX, Interaction Design

Recursive by Arrow Type

www.recursive.design

Recursive is a variable font built to “maximize versatility, control, and performance”. Recursive comes in a proportional and mono version, both of which can be further controlled along four axes: Weight, Casual, Slant, and Cursive. The Casual cut echoes the soft & curvy brush strokes of casual signpainting and adds a fun twist to the otherwise serious typeface. Recursive supports a wide range of Latin-based languages, including Vietnamese. It also comes with an extended set of currencies, symbols, fractions, and arrows.

Recursive is free for download from Google Fonts or Github and open-source, licensed under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.

Source: Arrow Type

PT Root UI by Paratype

www.paratype.com/fonts/pt/pt-root-ui

PT Root UI is a modern, no-nonsense sans serif that comes in four weights (Light, Regular, Medium, Bold). PT Root UI is designed specifically for screen reading, interfaces, and websites. It has a broad language support, including the Latin Extended and Cyrillic (including Cyrillic Asian), and comes with tabular figures, currency signs, fractions, and indices, as well as a number of arrows and alternative forms.

PT Root UI is free for download under the SIL Open Font License (OFL) on Paratype’s website.

Source: Paratype

Golos UI by Paratype

www.paratype.com/fonts/pt/golos-ui

Also by Paratype, Golos Ui comes in three weights (Regular, Medium, Bold), and is also available as a variable type. Golos UI is overall similar to PT Root Ui, but has slightly narrowed proportions. It has a broad language support, including the Latin Extended and Cyrillic (including Cyrillic Asian), and comes with tabular figures, currency signs, fractions and indices, as well as a number of arrows and alternative forms.

Golos UI is free for download under the SIL Open Font License (OFL) on Paratype’s website.

Source: Paratype

Grandstander by Etcetera Type Company

www.etceteratype.co/grandstander

Grandstander is a playful sans-serif variable font inspired by children’s books, that will “will appeal to folks young and old”. The letters are bend and slightly inflated, giving it a comic-like aesthetic. Grandstander comes in a static version with nine weights (Thin to Black) with matching italics. The variable version has two axes: Weight & Slant. It supports “a wide range of languages in the latin script scope” and includes tabular figures, as well as fractions, alternates and ligatures.

Grandstander is free for download under a OFL (Open Font License) on Google Fonts and Github.

Source: ETC

Angus by Black Foundry

black-foundry.com/fonts/angus

Angus is a modern sans-serif with rounded terminals that has a distinctly monospaced aesthetic. Angus comes in five weights (Light to Extrabold) with matching slanted italics. Angus support the Latin script set and includes old-style & tabular figures, fractions and indices, ligatures, and arrows.

Angus can be bought from Black Foundry’s website.

Source: Black Foundry

Halvar and Halvar Stencil Complete by TypeMates

www.typemates.com/fonts/halvar-and-stencil-complete

Halvar is a massive type system, with a total of 162 styles. Halvar plus Halvar Stencil in three widths (Wide, Normal & Condensed), as well as nine weights (Hairline to Black) with two italic versions (Slanted & SuperSlanted). With bulky proportions and constructed forms, Halvar is a pragmatic grotesk with the raw charm of an engineer. Halvar supports extended Latin, Greek and Cyrillic and is shipped with tabular figures, circled highlights, superscripts, fractions as well as alternate characters.

Halvar can be purchased from TypeMate’s website. A pre-release variable font is also available.

Source: TypeMates

Service Gothic by HEX

hex.xyz/Service_Gothic

Service Gothic is a work-in-progress variable font, currently only available in uppercase letters. Service Gothic includes 6 static weights from Thin to Bold.

The initial release version of Service Gothic can be bought from Future Fonts.

Source: Future Fonts

Urby & Urby Soft by TypeMates

www.typemates.com/fonts/urby

The Urby Collection aims to “combine striking character with technical functionality”. Urby, and its rounded counterpart Urby Soft come in five weights (Thin to Black). The two can be used interchangeably, as they are uniwidth across all weights in both families. The Urby Collection comes with extended Latin language support, and includes lining & tabular figures, super- and subscripts, fractions, ordinals, and a wide variety of helpful dingbats and geometric shapes.

The Urby Collection is available for purchase on the TypeMates website.

Source: TypeMates

Geóso by Finaltype

finaltype.de/de/projekte/geoso

Geóso is a humanist sans serif with a geometric feel. This typeface comes in nine weights (Thin to Heavy) with matching italics, and is uniwidth across every style. Geóso supports the extended Latin script set and features an extensive and sophisticated figure, super- and subscript and fraction system. As a bonus, Geóso includes the elusive german capital ß, and a fun set of custom emoticons.

Geóso can be purchased from the FrontSpring website.

Source: Finaltype

FF Kaytek family by FontFont

www.fontshop.com/superfamilies/ff-kaytek

FF Kaytek is “a fresh take on the correspondence typefaces of the 90s”. It is an extensive superfamily, comprising four styles: Slab, Sans, Headline & Rounded. FF Kaytek Slab and Sans each come in six weights (Thin to Black) plus matching italics, while FF Kaytek Headline and Rounded both have seven weights (Thin to ExtraBlack/Black). The Headline and Rounded style are complementary and have a more compact appearance than Slab and Sans. FF Kaytek is uniwidth across weight and italic within each style.

The FF Kaytek superfamily supports the extended Latin script set and ships with old-style figures, fractions, as well as super- and subscript.

FF Kaytek is available on FontShop and MyFonts.

Source: MyFonts

Bahnschrift by Saja Typeworks

docs.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/font-list/bahnschrift

Bahnschrift is a digitization of the DIN typeface known from German road signs and other technical implementations. Bahnschrift was Microsoft’s first variable font, and has two axes: Weight and Width. A static version exists, which includes five weights and three widths. Bahnschrift supports the Latin Extended (incl. Vietnamese), as well as Cyrillic & Greek.

Bahnschrift is available as part of the Windows 10 operating system.

Source: Microsoft

FF Scala family by FontFont

scalafont.com

The FF Scala family is a classic for typesetting in print. Designed in 1991 by Martin Majoor, the old-style serif FF Scala was later expanded with a sans-version, FF Scala Sans, based on a common skeleton. Both families come in two weights (Regular and Bold) plus matching italics, and two condensed styles. The FF Scala family supports extended Latin and includes old style & tabular figures, super- and subscript, fractions, ordinals and a signature set of decorational hands.

The FF Scala family is available for purchase from the FontShop website.