Erik Spiekermann’s Axel

June 30, 2009

Erik Spiekermann has introduced a new font this year at TYPO Berlin 2009 called Axel. It’s been designed specifically for screen use by such programs as Microsoft Excel where type tends to be a bit clunky in a program meant to display numbers. More from the FontFeed at FontShop:

Graphic and type designer, and FontFeed founding father Professor Dr. Erik Spiekermann is — amongst others — internationally recognized for his information design work. So it comes as little surprise that he would create Axel, a family of technically clever fonts specifically designed for use in constricted spaces (tables, columns, …). Why a special font for spreadsheets? Surveys have shown that multi-functional applications, such as Excel, are used for many more types of projects than just budgeting and bookkeeping. Users input words instead of numbers in over 90% of the cells. And the columns are usually too narrow for those words. Widely-used system fonts like Arial, Verdana and the likes either take up too much space or they are hard to read (i.e. Arial Narrow). With Axel, FontShop has created a typeface that is narrow without looking “condensed”. (Entire post here)