DIN Next Slab Akira Kobayashi Linotype

An addition to a stalwart superfamily, the characters in the Din Next Slab typeface designs echo the underlying shapes, proportions and industrial precision of the popular DIN Next family. Character shapes remain simple and counters open, ensuring high levels of legibility. The fonts also contain OpenType® features that can replace the default characters with special “legibility” designs, such as the 7 with a crossbar and zero with a slash. DIN Next Slab has seven weights, which cover the range from Ultralight to Black, each with matching italic. There are various character sets in all of the styles and the four middle weights have small capitals available.

Background of the Din typeface

The original shapes of the DIN typeface originated about 100 years ago, at the beginning of the 20th century. They were first used for locomotives and, a bit later, for signs in train stations. Designed by engineers, the DIN typeface is, above all, easily reproduced mechanically. To free the DIN typeface of its numerous typographic shortcomings and provide it with suitable features for graphic applications, DIN Next was created in 2009 under the direction of Akira Kobayashi at Linotype. DIN Next has seven weights, italic styles, small capitals and medieval characters. Now comes the next step, DIN Next Slab, which Kobayashi created with team members Sandra Winter and Tom Grace. This new font variant design is based on the optimized shapes of DIN Next. DIN Next Slab harmonizes perfectly with the styles of DIN Next: the basic letterforms and weights are identical. Both versions of the font can work together perfectly, not just in headlines and body text, but also within a text; they complement each other very well as design variations.

To order Din Next Slab, please email info@alttype.com.sg