Unbuntu is a free to use open source operating system developed by Canonical. What sets Unbuntu apart from other open source projects is the aim of creating for the user a friendly and consistent experience from code to graphical user interface (GUI) to print.
Part of Canonical’s design philosophy is to ensure that users can use programs in their own language, so the font used for the operating system (OS) needed to work across a range of character sets including Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew and Latin and is designed so it can be extended to include other languages including Chinese, Indian and Thai.
Establishing the nature of a font requires a structured design framework to inform each stage. The difference with this project was the involvement of the Open Source community throughout – essential to influence the process and confer a sense of ownership. The design process had to be completely transparent with a flow of information in both directions.
As a core part of the Unbuntu brand identity, the new typeface needed to embody the Unbuntu values of clarity, lightness and simplicity, so early in the design process Dalton Maag established that a humanist sans serif was the most appropriate look and feel for the font.
This decision was in part dictated by the required functionality of the OS; the need for the font to work on screen at small sizes meant avoiding anything too elaborate or too wide.
Humanist fonts have their roots in early round hand calligraphy, and are seen as friendly, warm and highly legible. The clean lines and large x-height of a sans serif help with on screen readability, print well and have a contemporary feel.
The initial concepts were designed using a small number of glyphs, but enough to be able to create test copy, and get a good idea of what the finished design would look and feel like. Beginning with the Latin, Dalton Maag started designing with the four letters, n o H O, and these glyphs helped to define a guide for around 80 percent of the remaining character set. The distinctive shapes for the ‘n’ and ‘v’ and a slight curvature to the ascenders and descenders helped establish the overall personality of the font. These unique design features would be translated across all the character sets to ensure that the design was a complete and consistent family.
The final font design includes four weights from light to bold plus their italics, a monospace font and a condensed regular.
The italic versions were designed as true italics where the a,e,f and g have different shapes that add subtle emphasis and textural difference to the roman text.
The designers also needed to consider the spacing between letters, as this creates a natural rhythm in the text that helps the reader to read with ease and understand the message. Manual adjustments, including kerning pairs, were addressed to ensure that the finished look was aesthetically pleasing.
Cultural sensitivities and nuances also needed to be taken into account for the left to right reading Arabic and Hebrew fonts. Arabic glyphs are derived from one another, but change meaning with the addition of diacritics, whilst Hebrew letterforms have a squarer feel and ‘hang’ from the x-height rather then sitting on the baseline.
Dalton Maag’s engineering team then performed a complex process to ensure that the font rendered on screen correctly. This included a checking and verification process to make sure that it met TrueType specifications, the addition of Unicode system information to identify each glyph co-ordinated across all the font styles and weights, and extensive manual hinting to make the font appear faithfully at any resolution on any device.
Finally the fonts were tested in a number of different environments and applications to check that they behaved as intended before being released.
The final design is a beautiful example of typographic design. It gives shape to the Open Source philosophy of Ubuntu, whilst remaining functional and aesthetically pleasing.
Exhibited in the Design Museum, the Unbuntu font family is a practical example of how a the partnership between the Open Source community and professional type designers can use the power of design to produce something valuable for everyone to use.
*Unbuntu is named after the Southern African philosophy of ubuntu, which often is translated as “humanity towards others” or “the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity”.
