A Very Extensive History of the Syntax Typeface

SYNTAX

Syntax is a well-proportioned and robust yet visually lively typeface, with a subtle variation of stroke width and stress.   There is a suggestion of Hellenic influences in the distinctive terminals. Syntax has a high x-height and a fairly narrow set. The capitals are shorter than the ascenders, and the face features special x-height figures. Produced in a range of five weights, Syntax is suitable for both text and display use. The face was developed as Linotype Syntax in six weights, with companion typefaces Syntax Serif, Syntax Letter, and Syntax Lapidar.

Designer(s)

Hans Eduard Meier

Foundry(ies)

D Stempel AG , Linotype

Release Year

1972

Country of Origin

Switzerland

Classification

Sans Serif, Humanist Sans

Original Format

Metal (Foundry)

Syntax is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed 1969-72 by the Swiss typeface designer Hans Eduard Meier (born 1922). It is believed to be the final face designed and released by D. Stempel for foundry casting.

The original drawings were done in 1954; first by writing the letters with a brush, then redrawing their essential linear forms, and finally adding balanced amounts of weight to the skeletons to produce optically monoline letterforms. In the period 1968“1972, Meier worked on additional weights and variations to the Syntax typeface. In 1989, the original foundry metal design was digitized by Adobe, which also expanded the family to include bold and ultrabold weights, resulting in a family family of four romans and 1 italic (in lightest weight) fonts.

Meier described Syntax as being a sans-serif face modeled on the Renaissance serif typeface, similar to Bembo. The uppercase has a wide proportion, and the terminals not being parallel to the baseline provide a sense of animation. The lowercase a and g follow the old style model of having two storeys. The italics are a combination of humanist italic forms, seen in the lowercase italic q, and realist obliques, seen in the lowercase italic a, which retains two storeys, unlike in other humanist sans-serif typefaces like FF Scala Sans and Gill Sans, where the a has a single storey italic.

Different brand names and derivate fonts

Bitstream released Syntax under the name Humanist 531. The family does not include italic font. Infinitype released Syntax under the name Saxony, including italic and medium font. The Cyrillic version was developed at ParaType in 1999 by Isay Slutsker and Manvel Shmavonyan.
The Syntax font family was chosen by Niklaus Wirth for the Oberon operating system. During part of the period that Oberon was under development, Meier worked in Wirth’s group at ETH, developing hand-optimized bitmap versions of the Syntax fonts (this was in the days prior to font anti-aliasing)

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HUMANIST SANS SERIF

The story of humanist sans serifs is the story of a bridge. At the time of their emergence, the humanist sans serifs spanned the chasm between two very different typographic genres: serif and sans serif typefaces. Sans-serif faces often endured the scorn of critics who regarded them merely as roman letters with their serifs- and consequently their beauty- extracted. Others disagreed, however, and embraced the idea of a typographic form stripped of ornament and decoration. By 1930, the geometric sans serif had arrived, with Paul Renner’s Futura as their acclaimed leader. Proponents praised Futura and faces like it for the adjusted widths and proportions, monotone characters, and interchangeability of typographic parts. Wary skeptics, on the other hand, bemoaned the apparent illegibility caused by the similarity of letterforms. The stage was set for a typographic compromise between traditional roman typefaces and the new geometrics. The humanist sans serifs were designed for this purpose; they spanned the gap between serifs and sans serifs while drawing on the best features of each.

While the designers of humanist typefaces looked to the sans serif for inspiration, they created more personal, human-oriented faces that, although inspired by geometrics such as Futura, avoided the mechanical rigidity of those faces. Specifically, humanist faces are characterized by an inclined stroke axis, reminiscent of handwriting, and a modulated stroke width. The humanist types incorporate aspects similar to 15^th-Century handwritten script and its old-style roman type progeny, and most include chancery-derived italics. The stroke suggests the gesture of a broad-nibbed pen as it forms a letter. The typographic structure, however, of the early humanist sans serifs rather than roman faces. As a result, their structure permits variation of both width and weight, while their graceful strokes afford increased legibility. For this reason, many believe humanist sans serifs to be better suited than geometric sans serifs for lengthy text.

A wide range of digital humanist sans serifs have been released in recent years, including Syntax. These digital fonts continue a rich legacy of 20^th-Century humanist sans-serif fonts. Early in the century, Edward Johnston designed a sans-serif alphabet for the London Underground Railway in 1918.

Humanist letterforms are reminiscent of handwriting in their inclined stroke axes, which lean to the left. The line indicates the stroke axis common to the letterforms of Optima, Gill Sans, and Rotis.