Editing Univers (section)

==Characteristics==
[[File:Remy_Peignot_Univers_specimen_1964.jpg|thumb|right|Rémy Peignot's Univers graphic emphasised the family's scope through referencing the [[periodic table]].]]
{{Quote box
 |quote  = Some of these old sans serifs have had a real renaissance within the last twenty years, once the reaction of the 'New Objectivity' had been overcome. A purely geometrical form of type is unsustainable.
 |source = Frutiger in 1961, explaining why his design had rejected the [[Sans-serif#Geometric|geometric sans-serif]] design trend popular from the 1920s to the 1950s.<ref name=P88>{{cite book|last1=Frutiger|first1=Adrian|title=Typefaces: The Complete Works|date=2014|isbn=9783038212607|page=88|publisher=Walter de Gruyter }}</ref>
 |width  = 30%
 |align  = left
}}
Univers is one of a group of [[Grotesque (typeface classification)|neo-grotesque]] [[sans-serif]] typefaces, all released in 1957,<ref>Spiekermann, Erik and E.M. Ginger (2003). ''Stop Stealing Sheep & find out how type works''. Peachpit Press, p. 65. {{ISBN|978-0-201-70339-9}}</ref> that includes [[Folio (typeface)|Folio]] and Neue Haas Grotesk (later renamed [[Helvetica]]). As all are based on Akzidenz-Grotesk, these three faces are sometimes confused with each other. These typefaces figure prominently in the [[International Typographic Style|Swiss Style]] of [[graphic design]].

Univers was released after a long period in which geometric typefaces such as [[Futura (typeface)|Futura]] had been popular. Frutiger disliked purely geometric designs, finding them too rigid, following a common school of thought among Swiss designers of the period. While studying at the [[Kunstgewerbeschule]] (Arts and Crafts School) in Zürich, he had begun to sketch a revived grotesque family based on 19th-century grotesques, at the time considered antiquated outside Switzerland. He described Univers in 1998 as having a 'visual sensitivity between thick and thin' strokes, avoiding perfect geometry.<ref name="Reputations: Adrian Frutiger">{{cite web|last1=Schwemer-Scheddin|first1=Yvonne|title=Reputations: Adrian Frutiger|url=http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/reputations-adrian-frutiger|website=Eye|access-date=12 September 2015}}</ref>

Different weights and variations within the type family are designated by the use of numbers rather than names, a system since adopted by Frutiger for other type designs. Frutiger envisioned a large family with multiple widths and weights that maintained a unified design idiom. However, the actual typeface names within Univers family include both number and letter suffixes. The design, with a working title of ''Monde'',<ref name="P88" /> was developed from 1953 to a final release in 1957.

Like most grotesque and neo-grotesque sans-serifs, Univers's slanted form is an [[Oblique type|oblique]], in which the letterforms are slanted, with minor corrections but no other major alterations. This is different from a [[Italic type|true italic]], in which the letterforms become modified to resemble handwriting more.<ref name="auto">{{cite web|last1=Majoor|first1=Martin|title=My type design philosophy|url=http://www.martinmajoor.com/6_my_philosophy.html|access-date=12 September 2014}}</ref> In the original design, Frutiger chose [[Oblique type|obliques]] with the extremely aggressive slant of sixteen degrees, which was reduced to twelve in some later releases. Linotype Univers (below) returns to the original angle.

[[File:Univers original ampersand.png|thumb|Univers' [[ampersand]] is a distinctive 'et' ligature of a style popular in French-speaking countries.]]
Frutiger's original ampersand was a true 'et' ligature, similar to that in [[Trebuchet MS|Trebuchet]] among others. Frutiger later provided an alternative for non French-speaking countries in which the form might be less familiar.<ref name="Lange" /><ref name="Flawed Typefaces" />

The Deberny & Peignot library was acquired in 1972 by [[Haas Type Foundry]]. It was transferred into the D. Stempel AG and Linotype collection in 1985 and 1989 respectively upon the Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei's acquisition and closure; it is now owned by [[Monotype Imaging|Monotype]] following its purchase of [[Linotype GmbH|Linotype]] in 2007.<ref>{{cite web|title=Univers|url=https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/univers/|website=MyFonts|publisher=Monotype|access-date=26 March 2015}}</ref> An independent version of Univers was licensed by the [[Berthold Type Foundry]] for its phototypesetting system with adaptations by [[Günter Gerhard Lange]]; Frutiger wrote in his autobiography that he had some affection for it.<ref name="Lange">{{cite book|last1=Frutiger|first1=Adrian|title=Typefaces: The Complete Works|pages=97–102}}</ref>