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Simplon Norm

  • Light Italic
  • Regular Italic
  • Medium Italic
  • Bold Italic

Simplon Mono

  • Light Italic
  • Regular Italic
  • Medium Italic
  • Bold Italic

ABOUT SIMPLON

The Simplon Family

Simplon Mono's Fractions

Simplon Norm vs. Simplon Mono

Simplon is Swiss Typefaces’ contemporary interpretation of the industrial sans serif. The Simplon typeface comes in two collections, the proportionally spaced Simplon Norm and the monospaced Simplon Mono, each available in 8 styles.

A modern take on the European road sign letter

With constructed letterforms and strokes of even width, Simplon is not unlike Euclid. While Euclid is based on a circle, Simplon is oblong, featuring straight-sided rounds. The enlongated proportions reveal its roots in signage: Simplon Norm takes cues from Grotesks seen on road signs across Europe. Defined in the 20th century by national standardization bodies like the German DIN, this lettering style continues to be a formative visual element of the public space – the Swiss SNV is still used for signs from Belgium to Romania – and inspires beyond the original application.

While most actual road sign typefaces suffer from limited draftsmanship and distracting quirks, Simplon Norm is smoother, catering to the demands of graphic designers. Still economically spaced, it’s wider and has larger counters, making it suitable also for smaller sizes. The straight segments in round glyphs like e or o allow for tight spacing in display applications. Simplon maintains a deliberately technical flavor. Its uncompromising attitude is exemplified by the engineer-like monolinearity: the thinning of joins is kept to a minimum. Activating the alternate monocular a and the tailless l – included as separate stylistic sets – can further Simplon Norm’s immediacy.

More than just a mono offshoot

Simplon Mono may serve as a monospaced companion, or as a font choice in its own right. Some of its striking details go hand in hand with its fixed-width spacing, like the barred I and 1, the i and r with base, or the extra-wide f and t. Others are motivated rather by a stylistic preference, and establish a distinct character: Unlike in Simplon Norm, numerals exhibit diagonals (6, 9) and diagonally cut terminals. This tendency is picked up for the ampersand and also the eszett, which alludes to the iconic form known from Berlin street signs. The bar in Q crosses the whole counter, a trait that is echoed in the slashed zero. If Norm’s diacritics with straight cedillas are modernist, the accents in Mono are playfully post-modernist, flaunting flat and angled shapes. They are also much lighter, just like quote marks, brackets, parentheses, and math symbols, resulting in a more variegated typographic color.

Both Simplon Norm and Simplon Mono come in four weights from Light to Bold. True to the genre tradition, the accompanying italics are (optically corrected) obliques. Devoid of any cursiveness, they set themselves apart from the upright styles by their slope alone. The fonts offer 12 sorts of arrows, a full alphanumeric set of sub- and superscript glyphs, as well as circles and squares for marking article endings. Simplon has been used for posters, exhibitions, websites and publications, and proven its qualities for branding and editorial design in fields ranging from art and music to architecure and technology.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Art Direction: Swiss Typefaces
Typeface Design: Emmanuel Rey / Swiss Typefaces
Font Engineering: Christoph Koeberlin

Desktop formats:  .otf, .ttf
Web formats: .woff2, .woff, .eot, .svg, .ttf

According to Hyperglot 2, Simplon covers the following languages. If you can't find a language you need in the list, please don't hesitate to reach out to us via email.

LATIN (supported by all subfamilies)
A – Acheron, Achinese, Acholi, Afar, Afrikaans, Alekano, Aleut, Alonquin, Amahuaca, Amarakaeri, Amis, Anaang, Andaandi (Dongolawi), Anuta, Ao Naga, Aragonese, Arbëreshë Albanian, Arvanitika Albanian, Asháninka, Ashéninka Perené, Asu (Tanzania) B – Balinese, Banjar, Bari, Basque, Batak Dairi, Batak Karo, Batak Mandailing, Batak Simalungun, Batak Toba, Bemba (Zambia), Bena (Tanzania), Bikol, Bislama, Borana-Arsi-Guji Oromo, Bosnian, Breton, Buginese C – Candoshi-Shapra, Caquinte, Cashibo-Cacataibo, Catalan, Cebuano, Central Aymara, Central Kurdish, Central Nahuatl, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chiga, Chiltepec Chinantec, Chokwe, Chuukese, Cimbrian, Cofán, Congo Swahili, Cook Islands Māori, Cornish, Corsican, Creek, Crimean Tatar, Croatian, Czech D – Danish, Dehu, Dutch E – Eastern Arrernte, Eastern Oromo, Efik, Embu, English, Ese Ejja F – Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Friulian G – Gagauz, Galician, Ganda, Ga’anda, German, Gheg Albanian, Gilbertese, Gooniyandi, Gourmanchéma, Guadeloupean Creole French, Gusii H – Haitian, Hani, Hiligaynon, Ho-Chunk, Hopi, Huastec, Hungarian I – Icelandic, Iloko, Inari Sami, Indonesian, Irish, Istro Romanian, Italian, Ixcatlán Mazatec J – Jamaican Creole English, Japanese, Javanese, Jola-Fonyi K – K'iche', Kabuverdianu, Kala Lagaw Ya, Kalaallisut, Kalenjin, Kamba (Kenya), Kaonde, Karelian, Kashubian, Kekchí, Kenzi, Mattokki, Khasi, Kikuyu, Kimbundu, Kinyarwanda, Kituba (DRC), Kongo, Konzo, Kuanyama, Kven Finnish, Kölsch L – Ladin, Ladino, Latgalian, Ligurian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low German, Lower Sorbian, Luba-Lulua, Lule Sami, Luo (Kenya and Tanzania), Luxembourgish M – Macedo-Romanian, Makhuwa, Makhuwa-Meetto, Makonde, Makwe, Malagasy, Malaysian, Maltese, Mandinka, Mandjak, Mankanya, Manx, Maore Comorian, Maori, Mapudungun, Matsés, Mauritian Creole, Meriam Mir, Meru, Minangkabau, Mirandese, Mohawk, Montenegrin, Munsee, Murrinh-Patha, Mwani, Mískito N – Naga Pidgin, Ndonga, Neapolitan, Ngazidja Comorian, Niuean, Nobiin, Nomatsiguenga, North Ndebele, Northern Kurdish, Northern Qiandong Miao, Northern Sami, Northern Uzbek, Norwegian, Nyanja, Nyankole O – Occitan, Orma, Oroqen P – Palauan, Paluan, Pampanga, Papiamento, Pedi, Picard, Pichis Ashéninka, Piemontese, Pijin, Pintupi-Luritja, Pohnpeian, Polish, Portuguese, Potawatomi Q – Quechua R – Romanian, Romansh, Rotokas, Rundi, Rwa S – Samburu, Samoan, Sango, Sangu (Tanzania), Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, Sena, Serbian, Seri, Seselwa Creole French, Shambala, Shawnee, Shipibo-Conibo, Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Soga, Somali, Soninke, South Ndebele, Southern Aymara, Southern Qiandong Miao, Southern Sami, Southern Sotho, Spanish, Sranan Tongo, Standard Estonian, Standard Latvian, Standard Malay, Sundanese, Swahili, Swati, Swedish, Swiss German T – Tagalog, Tahitian, Taita, Tedim Chin, Tetum, Tetun Dili, Tiv, Tok Pisin, Tokelau, Tonga (Tonga Islands), Tosk Albanian, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen, Tzeltal, Tzotzil U – Uab Meto, Ume Sami, Upper Guinea Crioulo, Upper Sorbian V – Venetian, Veps, Võro W – Walloon, Walser, Wangaaybuwan-Ngiyambaa, Waray (Philippines), Warlpiri, Wayuu, Welsh, West Central Oromo, Western Abnaki, Western Frisian, Wik-Mungkan, Wiradjuri, Wolof X – Xhosa Y – Yanesha', Yao, Yapese, Yindjibarndi, Yucateco Z – Zulu, Záparo

Need to know which other fonts cover a specific language? Consult this page ↦

Download specimen

Simplon in use

Selected projects
 

 

Hublot’s Big Bang x Sang Bleu
Sang Bleu
Simplon Mono

 

 

Rightship
Self-titled
Simplon Norm

 

 

Solento Organic Tequila
Javas Lehn Studio
Simplon Mono

 

 

43rd Paléo Festival Nyon
Base Design, Jodie Aeschlimann, Joanne Joho
Simplon Norm

 

 

watch.swiss
Gregory Page
Simplon Mono (& Euclid Flex)

 

 

Organic Elements
Lukas Diemling
Simplon Mono

 

 

Hublot’s Big Bang x Sang Bleu
Sang Bleu
Simplon Mono

 

 

Rightship
Self-titled
Simplon Norm

 

 

Solento Organic Tequila
Javas Lehn Studio
Simplon Mono

 

 

43rd Paléo Festival Nyon
Base Design, Jodie Aeschlimann, Joanne Joho
Simplon Norm

 

 

watch.swiss
Gregory Page
Simplon Mono (& Euclid Flex)

 

 

Organic Elements
Lukas Diemling
Simplon Mono

 

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Try before
you buy

All our fonts are available as trial versions in desktop and
web formats. You can easily use them and test them in your computer, on your own designs. It is the most friendly and
efficient way to evaluate fonts.

The Free Trial font files include a reduced character set (Latin alphabet and basic punctuation). If you require to test characters not included in these versions, we are happy to provide you with full Free Trial files upon request. Please send an email to [email protected] specifying which specific styles youʼd like to try out.

CONTENT
Simplon
2 Subfamilies, 16 Styles

FORMATS
Desktop & Web

GLYPHS
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'/-.,

Download Trial

Student
Discount

As a student, you can enjoy a special deal on all our available Typefaces. This includes a lifetime Personal license which means you can use these Fonts all throughout your studies and beyond.

Simplon

300 CHF → 50 CHF
16 Styles


All our typefaces are available
for the student discount at up to 90% discount
Apply now