New FontFonts: FF Mark, Ze New Germanetric Sans

FontFont Type Department, assisted by Erik Spiekermann. The expansive family has ten weights ranging from hairline to black with corresponding italics, bringing the total count to 20. The extreme weights were designed for display use, while the middle weights were optimised to achieve optimal legibility in text sizes.

Because there is quite a lot to tell about the roots and use of this new type family, FontFont produced a stunning and innovative minisite. It offers a comprehensive overview of the family, historical context and background information, the possibility to test the typefaces, a free FF Mark Pro test font, and a downloadable, highly detailed 136-page specimen PDF.

To directly access the available font packages, follow these links:

FF Mark OTFF Mark OT ProFF Mark subfamilies for Web, Apps, and Office

The initial idea behind FF Mark was to design a contemporary typeface family whose roots lie in the German geometric sans serif. This vast project is a collaboration between type designer Hannes von Döhren (HvD Fonts), Christoph Koeberlin (FontFont) and the FontFont Type Department (Andreas Frohloff, Jens Kutilek, Inka Strotmann, …). Initiator of the project was Erik Spiekermann, who also took upon himself the art direction.

At first glance FF Mark belongs amongst its famous ancestors like for example Erbar Grotesk, Lucina, Futura, Kabel or Berthold Grotesk. Upon closer inspection however it clearly stands out. Significant differences from similar faces from the 1930s are FF Mark's large x-height which ensures better readability, wider capitals, open letter forms, better-balanced glyphs, over 1,000 characters per font, and support for over 80 language zones in total in FF Mark Pro.

In all stages of its development FF Mark was closely monitored by the FontFont Type Department to prevent errors and ensure it technical integrity. In order to make the family suitable for all possible applications, it was generously furnished with carefully designed accented characters, ligatures and alternates, complex metric data including extensive kerning, and several hundred weight-matched special characters such as arrows, bullets, various sets of numerlas including numbered bullets, currency signs, and typical German specialties such as a 7 with a crossbar and an ß in two sizes. Even the capital letters K, R and Q have local color.

Discover FF Mark on its dedicated minisite.