Monotype Imaging Holdings has introduced the 26-font Metro Nova typeface family. Designed by Monotype’s Toshi Omagari, Metro Nova is the next-generation version of William Addison Dwiggins’ Metro design, released into the Linotype library in 1930.
The initial Metro was designed for use in industry-standard typesetting machines for the printing of newspapers, magazines and posters from the late-19th century to the 1970s. Metro was a “duplexed” typeface, whereby a pair of styles, such as roman and italic, was drawn with matching individual character widths. Dwiggins’ design took this into consideration, says Allan Haley, director of words and letters at Monotype.
Metro Nova comprises seven weights, from ultra thin to extra black in regular proportions, and six weights as condensed designs. Each has an italic counterpart for a total of 26 fonts. The family is available as OpenType Pro fonts, which provide for the ability to insert typographic features such as ligatures, fractions and alternate characters.
Pro fonts also offer an extended character set to support most Central European and many Eastern European languages. Metro Nova may be licensed as either desktop fonts or Web fonts from www.myfonts.com, www.fonts.com or www.linotype.com . The new fonts are also available as Web fonts through all Fonts.com Web Fonts paid subscription plans. In addition, Metro Nova is available as both Web fonts and desktop fonts through Fonts.com Professional and Master subscription plans.