Typographic Abbreviations Series #1: OCR

This entry is the first in a series (at least that’s the plan) of short articles explaining exactly what all those mysterious abbreviations you come across in your typographic lives actually mean. The first abbreviation we’ll examine is OCR.

OCR (as in OCR-A) stands for Optical Character Recognition. Optical character recognition is a technology which essentially allows machines to extract digital text from images. OCR is commonly used to extract information like addresses from letters, text from old books, or even letters and numbers from license plates(!). Many commercial desktop scanners are sold with OCR software.

OCR technology is even used on MyFonts! Our WhatTheFont typeface identification tool incorporates OCR technology when guessing which letters appear in a submitted image.

With OCR, the more distinct each character is from the others, the less likely the machine is to mistake similar shapes, such as 3 and B, or 1 and I, etc. Thus, several fonts have been developed specifically for use with OCR technology. The two most popular of these are probably OCR-A (released by American Type Founders in 1968) and OCR-B (its European counterpart, developed that same year by Adrian Frutiger for Monotype). OCR-A is easier for machines to read, while OCR-B is easier for humans to read.

Similar to OCR fonts in their necessity for uniquely distinguishable letter shapes are MICR fonts. MICR stands for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition, which is a technology similar to OCR, but instead of extracting information from an image, it extracts it by reading specially printed magnetic ink. The most common use of MICR printing is for routing and account numbers on the bottom of bank checks.

Since OCR and MICR fonts are more closely related to technology than typographic beauty or human legibility, they are frequently used outside of their intended function to suggest a “technology” aesthetic, as with this album cover for the German electronic music group, Kraftwerk:

Inherently, OCR and MICR fonts have distinctly recognizable formal qualities that have been associated with technology and all things digital. Because of this, many typeface designers have borrowed these formal qualities when designing typefaces that may not be intended for use with OCR or MICR technology, but are simply meant to evoke certain feelings via association. Some examples are Data 70 by Bob Newman and Fiber Eno from Behaviour.

To see more fonts like these, try a search for “OCR” on MyFonts.

If you know any more info on OCR or MICR fonts, or spotted an inaccuracy in my article, please post it as a comment.

September 2006 Rising Stars

Every month we add new, innovative fonts and sign up new foundries. In the September 2006 issue of Rising Stars, we show you our top-selling new fonts.

Cyan is designed with geometric Roman proportions. Unlike Trajan, Cyan has lowercase characters in the regular version. Cyan’s weight is similar to Trajan’s but the horizontal strokes are slightly bolder, resulting in better legibility for small sizes, especially for lowercase characters.

Machia is a handwriting script with more than enough ink. We like all three weights: Machia, Xtra One, and Xtra Two. Xtra Two includes fleurons and ornaments.

Crazy David 2 from 066.FONT, a small type design foundry in Poland, makes alternative fonts like this grungy punk design.

Inspired by homemade garage sale signs, Brubeck’s Cube is a fun, hand-illustrated design, a poster font that communicates clearly in a humanist style. Use it to create 3D effects with a stylish color palette.

Sept. 2006 Design Trends: Three-Dimensional Fonts

Three-dimensional fonts provide ways to create 3d effects with stylish color palettes, as we show you with the fonts below:

Inspired by homemade garage sale signs, Brubeck’s Cube is a fun, hand-illustrated design, a poster font that communicates clearly in a humanist style.

3 D is a hand-doodled font with irrational perspective and skewed characters. The detail in each of this alphabet’s letters makes it look especially cool when displayed BIG. This unique alphabet makes excellent titles for journal and album pages, or can be used for all paper arts projects.

Penitentiary Gothic is a digital recreation of the letters used on California state license plates, designed in order to make props for movies and television shows. The regular style is meant to be used on its own, but the other four styles are meant to be used one on top of another in different colors to create an embossed 3D effect. For best results, use the fill style in a dark color on top of a light colored background. Put the lolite style directly on top of the fill style in 10 – 30% of the background color. Put the hilite style directly on top of that in 10 – 30% of your fill color. Put the shadow style directly on top of that using your background color plus 50 – 80% black.

Jeff Levine acquired a set of original water-applied decals made by the Duro Decal Company of Chicago (now Duro Art Industries) and painstakingly recreated one of the classic hand-drawn typefaces from the Duro line. Named after the street where the company is located, Juneway is an authentic reproduction for the computer-based designer.

Archive Tinted is an engraved display typeface from Archive Type, which specializes in old typefaces found in old prints, books and samples. Typefaces are reproduced as they appeared in print. This font and others from Archive Type allow you to bring an old-fashioned feel to new posters, newsletters, and designs.

Check out our 3d fonts for more three-dimensional designs. No Photoshop effects required!