Frutiger is a font family that includes serif, sans serif as well as ornamental typefaces. Its clean look made me add it to my list of interesting fonts.
What does Frutiger look like?
The text below is set in Frutiger Neue, the reworked version introduced in 2000.
These are some of the variants that are available
What do you use Frutiger for?
The availability of many variants and weights, as well as its excellent legibility, make Frutiger a very versatile font. It can be used for anything that needs a distinct and clean or modern look. Keep in mind that Frutiger is one of Linotype’s best selling fonts: it is not exactly an exclusive font.
As an alternative, try Thesis Sans, Myriad, Segoe UI or the Bitstream version of Frutiger which is called Humanist 777.
The history of Frutiger
Adrian Frutiger designed a sans-serif typeface called Roissy around 1968. It was named after the location of the Charles De Gaulle airport where this font was used for all signage. The font family was publicly released as Frutiger in 1976. Over the years it was extended quite a lot and now includes a serif version (Frutiger Serif), variants for signage (including ASTRA-Frutiger) as well as some casual versions (Frutiger Capitalis & Frutiger Stones). Frutiger Next is a revised version from 2000 which includes true italics. In 2009 Akira Kobayashi and Adrian Frutiger once again reworked the typeface. The new version is called Neue Frutiger.
Frutiger trivia
Adrian Frutiger doesn’t seem to be too happy that Myriad, which was included in some versions of the Adobe Creative Suite, resembles his own typeface so much. You can read an interesting thread on this here.
Other sources of information
Linotype has a page which shows all the available versions of Frutiger. There is, of course, also a Wikipedia page
Nice
At last someone not perpetuating the myth that Frutiger was the font used at Charles De Gaulle airport.