Utopia (typeface)
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| Category | Serif |
|---|---|
| Classification | Transitional |
| Designer(s) | Robert Slimbach |
| Commissioned by | Adobe Systems |
| Date released | 1989 |
| Shown here | Utopia Regular |
Utopia is the name of a transitional serif typeface designed by Robert Slimbach and released by Adobe Systems in 1989.
Utopia qualifies as a transitional serif typeface: one based on 18th- and early-19th-century ideals of classical design. Adobe's release notes cite Baskerville and Walbaum as influences, and Adobe's Sumner Stone has also compared it to Hermann Zapf's Melior as similar. It was one of the first typefaces to be part of Adobe's Originals programme, designed to feature a large range of styles for professional use. With a reasonably solid design, Utopia was sometimes used by newspapers.
Current versions of the typeface are released in the OpenType format and include features such as ligatures and small capitals. It is released in four optical variants, for display, headline, regular and caption text sizes, each in regular, semibold and bold weights. A black (extra-bold) weight is available in the headline size. Slimbach made some changes to the font when revisiting it for the OpenType release, and Adobe does not guarantee identical character metrics. This means documents developed using one font file should not be switched to using another, at risk of lines breaking in different places.
Uniquely for Adobe's professional typefaces, a basic set of Utopia's styles has been open-sourced by Adobe, allowing it to be used for free. This comprises regular, italic, bold and bold italic styles of the regular size, with 229 glyphs for each, including ligatures but not small capitals. Adobe donated the Utopia typeface (in the form of PostScript Type 1 files) to the X Consortium, for use in the X Window System, a popular graphical environment for Unix workstations. Conversions of the Type 1 files to ttf and otf files have also been made. This release is designed for use at small text sizes, with a large x-height and quite thick stroke widths. Adobe retains rights to the Utopia name, and prohibits modified fonts from being redistributed without the name being changed.
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