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Linotype Facts of Life: How It Came About

The Linotype Facts of Life font family consists of symbols designed to represent concepts and prompt discussion about life's fundamental questions. The fonts allow users to combine symbols in true-to-scale proportions to create customized statements. The designer presented the symbol language at a conference where it captured attention with its ability to convey ideas through simple images.

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62 views2 pages

Linotype Facts of Life: How It Came About

The Linotype Facts of Life font family consists of symbols designed to represent concepts and prompt discussion about life's fundamental questions. The fonts allow users to combine symbols in true-to-scale proportions to create customized statements. The designer presented the symbol language at a conference where it captured attention with its ability to convey ideas through simple images.

Uploaded by

Nathan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How to use

Linotype Facts of Life

How it came about


The “Linotype Facts of Life” font family stemmed from the wish of the designer to give his
children “pictures of life”. Lionni was primarily interested in using simple images to answer the
key questions of life such as identity, philosophy, responsibility, objectivity, etc. His image
language arouses associations and provokes discussion on the elementary things which affect
the world. Behind the typographer, the philosopher hints that there are more truths to be found
behind each of the symbols.
During the typo[media] 98 congress, Lionni presented his symbol language to an appreciative
audience who were captivated by his enthusiasm and spirit.
The type book The book “Facts of Life” by Pippo Lionni uses humor to show just some of the possibilities
which his symbols open up. The book has been published by Verlag Hermann Schmidt Mainz
GmbH, Robert-Koch-Straße 8, D-55129 Mainz, Germany.

The three fonts


Macintosh and Windows The family consists of three fonts which have been designed to work together seamlessly on
the Macintosh and Windows platforms.
2 fonts true-to-scale The “Linotype Facts of Life One” and “Linotype Facts of Life Two“ fonts contain a collection of
symbols which can be used in conjunction with each other in true-to-scale proportions.
1 alternative font with The third font “Linotype Facts Of Life Alternate” repeats a number of symbols which appear
larger symbols very small in the two other fonts due to the latter being depicted true-to-scale and shows them
enlarged by a factor of 2.5. The symbols in this font occupy the same keys as in the original
font, thereby enabling the user to access the larger symbol by simply changing fonts.

. * Z . * Z
1
How to use
Linotype Facts of Life

Typesetting notes
The symbols appear very small due to their complexity. You should never set them smaller than
36 points.
Each font contains two basic symbols ( > and%% < ) for creating warning signs. These are
positioned on an en space so that the right-hand half of the symbol overhangs. All other
symbols overlap on both sides by almost half of the symbol width. This means that any
Placing symbols centrally chosen symbols can be positioned centrally relative to each other by simply typing them in one
relative to each other after the other. In order to display two symbols next to each other, you will need to enter a
Blanks for spaces spacing of at least one standard space. In addition to the standard space with the width of a
quarter-em space, each weight also contains a mini space instead of the “%” which is around
one thirtieth of the width of an em space. This means that the distance between two symbols
can be controlled with almost perfect register accuracy without any need for a DTP program.

>A <B % D% % V % W% % X % Z Y 2% 3 F% %E %1 % %G
{ {_ {_ }{
Combine at will The diversity of symbols means that a whole range of different statements can be combined.

A% B % 6% ~% 6% A% B
}

Have fun “writing” your “facts of life”.


Your Linotype Library Team

Version: 06/1999 2

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