Typographic Abbreviations Series #2: VAG

This entry is the second in a series of short articles explaining exactly what all those mysterious abbreviations you come across in your typographic lives actually mean. In this installation, the abbreviation we’ll examine is VAG (as in VAG Rounded).

VAG Rounded is a typeface that was originally developed by Sedley Place in 1979 as part of the corporate branding for Volkswagen. The “VAG” stands for “Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft” (which is German for “Volkswagen Incorporated”). In 1989, the font was published for public use by Adobe. Its designers were David Bristow, Gerry Barney, Ian Hay, Kit Cooper, and Terence Griffin.

VAG Rounded is one of many fonts which come bundled with several of Adobe’s industry-standard design programs, such as Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator. Because of the huge popularity of Adobe software (and subsequent proliferation of VAG Rounded), many designers have VAG Rounded loaded on their computers whether they know it or not. It is not surprising then, especially when considering VAG Rounded’s clean, simple, and friendly design, that it has become a very commonly used font.

While the type experts at Adobe identify VAG Rounded as “a variation on nineteenth-century grotesque sans serif designs”, its most obvious distinguishing factor is the use of rounded terminals. This design element gives it a uniquely soft and friendly feeling, making it popular as a choice for many modern logo designs and marketing campaigns (for more on this topic, see this entry on the FontShop blog by Stephen Coles).

In fact, the clean and friendly appearance of VAG Rounded earned it the choice for use on the keyboards of all Apple iBooks and 2003-and-later PowerBooks, further exposing the font to designers around the world.

Another indirect testament to the success of VAG Rounded when used in the context of corporate marketing is GE Inspira, an adaptation of VAG Rounded developed by Michael Abbink around 2002 as part of a visual identity system for General Electric. Some comparisons between the two fonts are made in the following image (from Wikipedia):

I still haven’t figured out how to pronounce VAG Rounded in my normal conversation. My immediate instinct is to make a word from the VAG initials and refer to it as something that would sound like “Vadge Rounded” or simply “Vadge”. But for obvious awkwardness-avoiding reasons I think I’ll just take the time to pronounce each letter: “Vee Ay Gee Rounded”.

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 196 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.