Monotype Introduces Sumner Stone’s Newest Addition to his Magma Superfamily: Magma II
WOBURN, Mass. (PRWEB) September 04, 2014 -- Crafted with aesthetic harmony and high legibility in mind, the Magma II™ typeface family is the newest design from Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: TYPE), a leading provider of typefaces, technology and expertise for creative applications and consumer devices. Created by renowned typeface designer, Sumner Stone, and offered exclusively through Monotype, the family of nine sans serif fonts is the next-generation of Stone’s popular Magma™ design, with the newest version refined for optimal legibility in today’s digital environments.
Stone drew his original Magma in 1998 with pencil to capture the details he envisioned. He then developed the design on screen, with an eye toward ensuring a graceful performance in a variety of environments. In Magma II, Stone included design features with subtleties to enhance on-screen legibility. Magma II also includes a suite of alternate characters and an extended character set to support most Central and many Eastern European languages.
“Sans serif typeface designs are not generally known for their beauty. They are for the most part primarily notable for their reliability and sturdiness. They are safe. They work. They are plumbing,” said Stone. “Only a few sans serifs fulfill this functional role and yet also have forms that reach the aesthetic level described above. My goal in designing the Magma II typeface was to create one of those designs.”
Stone’s Magma II features widened ends of strokes that compensate for the tendency to otherwise appear tapered when viewed on screen. Magma II also features a generous x-height, open counters and easily recognizable characters – all to aid legibility. Magma II includes as OpenType® features alternate one-story forms for the lowercase “a” and “g,” which provides flexibility when setting text at very small sizes or when applying variety to display typography. In addition, Magma II includes OpenType features for an alternate “l” with a curved foot, a round form of the capital “E,” a descending form of “J,” a zero with a slash, and a capital “I” with slab serifs, which distinguishes it from the lowercase “l” and the figure 1.
Allan Haley, director of words and letters at Monotype, said, “Magma II is one of a small number of sans serif typefaces specifically designed for both text and display use. This is particularly beneficial for designers wishing to use a sans serif while having the assurance it will be legible and easy to read at text sizes. Magma II is a nimble yet elegant design that works as a powerful communicator.”
Examples of uses for Magma II include branding, advertising (digital and print), books, periodicals, games, signage and mapping systems, exhibit design, information graphics, brochures and catalogs.
Magma II is part of the Magma superfamily which includes the Magma Compressed, Magma Condensed, Munc™, Tuff™ and Basalt™ families. Haley said, “These typefaces are all harmonious companions. They can be used together to create distinctive, integrated typographic compositions. The condensed designs increase the range of use for applications where space is at a premium.”
Read Stone’s blog post on Magma II here.
Availability
The Magma II family is comprised of five weights – thin, light, regular, semibold and bold. All but the thin weight have corresponding italics. The family is available as OpenType Pro fonts and may be licensed as either desktop fonts or Web fonts from MyFonts, Fonts.com, or Linotype.com. All subscribers to Fonts.com Web Fonts paid plans have access to Magma II as Web fonts, while Pro, Master and desktop add-on subscribers can also use the family as desktop fonts as part of their subscription.
The Magma II fonts are priced at $49.00 each and $199.00 for the entire family. An introductory $99.00 promotion is available through Oct. 4, 2014 when licensing the entire Magma family of desktop fonts from MyFonts, Fonts.com or Linotype.com.
About Sumner Stone
Based in Rumsey, Calif., Stone founded Stone Type Foundry in 1990 and has designed virtually every typeface in the foundry’s library, with the exception of the ITC Bodoni® design, which was created by a team of designers, led by Stone, who has also designed custom typefaces for brand identities. His background includes work as a calligrapher, graphic designer, mathematician, teacher, author and lecturer. During his tenure with Adobe in the 1980s, Stone established and implemented the Adobe® Originals program. He has been credited as being one of the first typeface designers to combine design and digital processes to create typefaces for the digital age. In addition to being a typeface designer, Stone currently teaches type design at Cooper Union in New York.
About Monotype
Monotype is a leading global provider of typefaces, technology and expertise that enable the best user experience and ensure brand integrity. Headquartered in Woburn, Mass., Monotype provides customers worldwide with typeface solutions for a broad range of creative applications and consumer devices. The company’s libraries and e-commerce sites are home to many of the most widely used typefaces – including the Helvetica®, Frutiger® and Univers® families – as well as the next generation of type designs. Further information is available at http://www.monotype.com. Follow Monotype on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Monotype’s Type Case blog.
Monotype, Helvetica and Frutiger are trademarks of Monotype Imaging Inc. registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. Univers is a trademark of Monotype GmbH registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. ITC Bodoni is a trademark of Monotype ITC Inc. and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. Magma, Magma II, Basalt, Munc and Tuff are trademarks of Stone Type Foundry Inc. OpenType is either a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corp. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2014 Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc. All rights reserved.
Vikki Quick, Monotype, http://www.monotype.com, +1 (781) 970-6115, [email protected]
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