Metr Grotesk is a geometric grotesk with Central European roots. It takes its cue from Universal Grotesk, the round sans that Grafotechna in Prague cast for four decades and that lettered Czechoslovak signs, posters and timetables.
It is not a revival or a trace. Every letter is drawn new by Tomáš Kopečný, keeping the open, circular shapes and adding what a working family needs today: five weights with true italics, a variable font, small caps, alternates and full Central European coverage.
One variable font with two axes. Here in steps of 100 and 5°.
How a round grotesk from the 1930s type case became a variable family for screens, signs and books.
In the 1950s the Prague type foundry Grafotechna cast a round, geometric sans called Universal Grotesk. It came from the Kristall-Grotesk of the 1930s and ended up everywhere: on railway timetables, cinema posters, the labels of jam jars and the spines of paperbacks. Nobody thought of it as a typeface with a name. It was simply the letters of the street.
Metr Grotesk keeps that plain, measured voice. The o is a circle, the stems are straight and the terminals are cut square, so the type reads like a well kept drawing office. Inside that discipline the shapes are allowed to be friendly: a round g, a generous a, and a tailed l that keeps words like illegal and Ill legible.
The family runs from a hairline Thin to a dense Bold, with a true 10° italic in every weight. The variable font fills in the steps between, and the OpenType features add small caps, fractions like 3/4, tabular figures and a slashed zero.
Text sizes were spaced and kerned on long running copy rather than on headlines alone: more than 1,200 kerning class pairs, checked in Czech, Polish, German and English. The result sets an evenly grey page at 9 points and still holds its shape on a billboard.
Metr Grotesk sets a calm, even text. Its round letters and short, straight stems give a steady rhythm that works for reports, books, menus and signs. Figures line up in tables, small caps quieten acronyms like UNESCO and PDF, and the italic adds emphasis without shouting. Příliš žluťoučký kůň úpěl ďábelské ódy. Zwölf Boxkämpfer jagen Viktor quer über den großen Sylter Deich.
Metr Grotesk sets a calm, even text. Its round letters and short, straight stems give a steady rhythm that works for reports, books, menus and signs. Figures line up in tables, small caps quieten acronyms like UNESCO and PDF, and the italic adds emphasis without shouting. Příliš žluťoučký kůň úpěl ďábelské ódy. Zwölf Boxkämpfer jagen Viktor quer über den großen Sylter Deich.
Metr Grotesk sets a calm, even text. Its round letters and short, straight stems give a steady rhythm that works for reports, books, menus and signs. Figures line up in tables, small caps quieten acronyms like UNESCO and PDF, and the italic adds emphasis without shouting. Příliš žluťoučký kůň úpěl ďábelské ódy. Zwölf Boxkämpfer jagen Viktor quer über den großen Sylter Deich.
Metr Grotesk sets a calm, even text. Its round letters and short, straight stems give a steady rhythm that works for reports, books, menus and signs. Figures line up in tables, small caps quieten acronyms like UNESCO and PDF, and the italic adds emphasis without shouting. Příliš žluťoučký kůň úpěl ďábelské ódy. Zwölf Boxkämpfer jagen Viktor quer über den großen Sylter Deich.
Metr Grotesk sets a calm, even text. Its round letters and short, straight stems give a steady rhythm that works for reports, books, menus and signs. Figures line up in tables, small caps quieten acronyms like UNESCO and PDF, and the italic adds emphasis without shouting. Příliš žluťoučký kůň úpěl ďábelské ódy. Zwölf Boxkämpfer jagen Viktor quer über den großen Sylter Deich.
Metr Grotesk sets a calm, even text. Its round letters and short, straight stems give a steady rhythm that works for reports, books, menus and signs.
Figures line up, small caps quieten acronyms.
The italic leans 10° and keeps the geometry of the upright. It is a slanted roman, so the letters stay calm and wide, and they mix with the uprights in the same line without a change of colour. Use it for titles, quotations and the occasional raised voice.
Hover or tap a character to see it large.
| ss01 | Single-storey a, descending f, square colon | Fanfare: aaa | → | Fanfare: aaa |
| ss02 | Capital I with serifs | Illinois III | → | Illinois III |
| ss03 | Straight l (the tailed l is the default) | all fell ill | → | all fell ill |
| smcp | Small capitals | Small Caps | → | Small Caps |
| c2sc | Capitals to small capitals | NATO AND EU | → | NATO AND EU |
| frac | Fractions | 1/2 3/4 5/8 7/16 | → | 1/2 3/4 5/8 7/16 |
| tnum | Tabular figures | 1,111.10 | → | 1,111.10 |
| zero | Slashed zero | 2030 0800 | → | 2030 0800 |
| case | Case-sensitive forms | (H-1) [A–Z] @MG | → | (H-1) [A–Z] @MG |
| sinf | Scientific inferiors | H2O CO2 CH4 | → | H2O CO2 CH4 |
| Tram 8 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Malostranská | 06:04 | 06:11 | 06:18 |
| Hradčanská | 06:07 | 06:14 | 06:21 |
| Vítězné náměstí | 06:10 | 06:17 | 06:24 |
| Podbaba | 06:18 | 06:25 | 06:30 |
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