Linotypes DIN 1451 Engschrift and Mittelschrift are certified by the German DIN Institute for use on official signage projects. Many of the signs that use DIN 1451 are cut with routers, which cannot make perfect corners their rounded heads cut rounded corners best. Even this softening is a nod to part of DIN 1451s past, however. For instance, although DIN 1451s corners are all pointed angles, DIN Next has rounded them all slightly. These were added by Kobayashi to make the new family even more versatile in 21st-century media. There are many subtle differences in DIN Nexts letters when compared withe DIN 1451 original. The digital version of DIN 1451 would go on to be adopted and used by designers in other countries as well, solidifying its worldwide design reputation. Nevertheless, because DIN 1451 was seen all over Germany on signs for town names and traffic directions, it became familiar enough to make its way onto the palettes of graphic designers and advertising art directors. They did not intend for the design to be used for advertisements and other artistically oriented purposes. The committee wanted a sans serif, thinking it would be more legible, straightforward, and easy to reproduce. The design was to be used on German street signs and house numbers. In 1936 the German Standard Committee settled upon DIN 1451 as the standard font for the areas of technology, traffic, administration and business. The abbreviation DIN stands for Deutsches Institut fr Normung e.V., which is the German Institute for Industrial Standardization. Recently, they have become more popular than ever, with designers regularly asking for additional weights.

Linotype has been supplying its customers with the two DIN 1451 fonts since 1980. DIN Next is part of Linotypes Platinum Collection.

Each weight ships in three varieties: Regular, Italic, and Condensed, bringing the total number of fonts in the DIN Next family to 21. Akira Kobayashi began by revising these two faceswho names just mean condensed and regularbefore expanding them into a new family with seven weights (Light to Black). ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 1234567890 abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Next is a typeface family inspired by the classic industrial German engineering designs, DIN 1451 Engschrift and Mittelschrift.

DIN pro condensed medium font free