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Find sources: "Microgramma" typeface – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
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| Category | Sans-serif |
|---|---|
| Designer(s) | Aldo Novarese Alessandro Butti |
| Foundry | Nebiolo (source), Linotype, URW |
| Date released | 1952 |
| Variations | Eurostile (Normal & Condensed variant) |
Microgramma is a sans-serif typeface which was designed by Aldo Novarese and Alessandro Butti for the Nebiolo Type Foundry in 1952. It became popular for use with technical illustrations in the 1960s and was a favourite of graphic designers by the early seventies, its uses ranging from publicity and publication design to packaging, largely because of its availability as a Letraset typeface. Early typesetters (like the AM Varityper) also incorporated it.
Novarese later developed Eurostile in 1962, (a normal and condensed typeface variant) very similar to Microgramma. Eurostile added lower-case letters, a bold condensed variant, and an ultra narrow design he called Eurostile Compact.
Microgramma is almost always used in its extended and bold extended forms (pictured). Initially, it was a titling font with only uppercase letters. Later versions, by Linotype and URW/Nebiolo, contain a lowercase as well, making it functionally identical to Eurostile. These digital versions also include accented Latin characters, mathematical symbols, and Latin ligatures. In the URW/Nebiolo version, there are also extended Latin, subscripts and superscripts, and extended Latin ligatures.
Microgramma OnlyShadow is a variant of Microgramma Bold that contains only the shadows of Microgramma Extended Bold, designed by URW Studio and Aldo Novarese in 1994. Although Alessandro Butti died in 1959, URW credited him as the designer of the new font.
The Euro sign in the font has a different weight, styled from a different font family, and is not shadowed.
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Science fiction films and TV programmes quickly started using the typeface. A number of Gerry Anderson productions in the mid/late-1960s applied the Microgramma font decals to the featured futuristic vehicles.
Microgramma and its related variations are used throughout the original Alien franchise films, as well as the more recent reincarnations. Weyland-Yutani, the primary corporate conglomerate within both the earlier and recent Alien films (including the recent genre crossover Alien vs. Predator franchise films), features use of Microgamma and its Bold Extended typeface in its corporate logo, although not exclusively.
The Microgramma Bold Extended typeface was used extensively in the Star Trek universe, such as Franz Joseph's The Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual.[1] The font, in both its original and various altered forms, was incorporated into numerous displays and on ship exteriors in six of the Star Trek motion pictures, as well as depictions of "earlier technology" display screens, particularly for the Enterprise "prequel" series, during the four later television series.
A modified version of Microgramma Bold Extended (sometimes called Starfleet Bold Extended) was used for the main hull registry number for Starfleet ships beginning with Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979. Some characters were modified, and all characters have red piping outlining them.
Following the 2016 WWE Brand Extension Draft and WWE Battleground 2016, WWE Raw unveiled a new logo which used Microgramma font, as did all title cards and graphics. The following night, WWE SmackDown Live also unveiled a new logo - although it did not use Microgramma, all title cards and graphics did.
According to MasGrafx Racing Graphics, Microgramma is the font of several NASCAR numbers used by Richard Childress Racing and Dale Earnhardt, Inc., such as the #8 (mainly driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr. until 2007), #3 (Dale Earnhardt and Austin Dillon) and #29 (Kevin Harvick). Some of these are in italics. Red Bull Racing also uses the font for their driver numbers in Formula 1.
Microgramma was also the logo font used by Alienware computers until 2016.
Polish "Central Anticorruption Bureau" (Centralne Biuro Antykorupcyjne) use font in logo and uniforms. In short: "CBA" in uniforms workers and officers.
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