Meta-morphosis: How FF MetaPlus Became FF Meta
When we see the expansive superfamily that FF Meta has become, it’s hard to believe its beginnings were so humble. As the family has known three different incarnations, there tends to be some confusion about which version is which. So let’s clear the air and explore the history of the most successful humanist sans of the previous decade, “the Helvetica of the nineties”.
Originally, back in 1991 when the second batch of FontFonts was released, there was FF Meta (Normal, Bold, Small Caps). One of the defining characteristics of FF Meta — and FontFonts in general — was the presence of hanging (or oldstyle) figures and additional ff-ligatures in the “regular” Normal and Bold weights, while lining figures were found in the Small Caps weight. The distinctive Meta arrow occupied the slots for the lesser-than and greater-than symbols.
The first expansion came in 1992 with FF Meta 2, adding three more weights (Italic, Italic Small Caps, Bold Small Caps).
FF MetaPlus (not “Meta Plus” as it’s often mistyped), released in 1993, was the big leap forward. It introduced three new weights — which effectively tripled the number of fonts to 18 — and included a fine-tuning of some characters (most notably a correction of the crossbar on the lc ‘t’) and revisions of spacing and kerning. The family at that point featured Normal, Book, Medium, Bold and Black weights, all in Roman, Italic, Small Caps and Italic Small Caps (except for the Black weight which didn’t include Small Caps). Still hanging figures in the ‘regular’ weights and lining figures in the Small Caps. The latter featured the Meta arrow, while lesser-than and greater-than symbols were added to the “regular” fonts.
Eventually, in 1998 it was back to FF Meta. This saw a reorganisation of the family into subfamilies: FF Meta Normal, FF Meta Book, FF Meta Medium, FF Meta Bold and FF Meta Black, all in Roman, Italic, Small Caps and Italic Small Caps, which all got coupled with their respective Expert and Lining Figures weights: yep, a whopping 60 fonts indeed. Biggest change this time was the addition of the Black Small Caps, and moving of the extra ligatures (ff, ffi, ffl which were previously in the “regular” fonts) to the new Expert fonts. And of course the Lining figures weights meant that you don’t have to switch between “regular” fonts and Small Caps fonts anymore to get the desired type of numerals.
Of course the story doesn’t end there, as the latest — and definitive — incarnation of FF Meta got subsequently expanded with foreign language versions, a Condensed family, additional light weights (Light, Hairline, and Thin) and just recently a group of Headline cuts.
So, to conclude — never mix the original six weight FF Meta with FF MetaPlus nor the new FF Meta family, as it has different spacing and kerning, and some redesigned characters. Substituting FF Meta for FF MetaPlus is recommended, but keep in mind that ff-ligatures will disappear and types of numerals might differ.
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11 Comments:
Actually, Yves, I think that the Helvetica of the 90s was Helvetica ;-D
Dan, Helvetica is the Helvetica of the noughties (graphic designers in other words…)
Hmmmmm all good, but to answer Dan Reynolds, Helvetica is NOT a font of the nineties - never was. And although Meta was designed in the nineties, it was not used effectively until 2001 and beyond. So Meta could be called the font of the new millennium rather than compare it to boring old Helvetica.
Xandro.
Then the helvetica of the 2000s is FF DIN!
i just love meta. simple.
It’s funny how your perceptions change, isn’t it. When I first saw that wiggly “l” I didn’t like it at all (oldschool hasbeen) but one by one I chucked out all my unexamined assumptions about letterforms. Pity my employer doesn’t feel the same way… I had a bit of a fight over the purchase of Meta. (We’re stuck with a Linotype CD collection, which has lots of good, old fonts but a whole lot of crap as well. Nothing from the Nineties let alone the noughies!)
I salivate when I see some of the brilliant modern fonts being released by FontShop. I’m the poor child staring into the sweetshop window. I’ve got to get fonts past I.T. as well as the bean counters.
Sigh.
I’m commenting a little late (just over 4 years) but I think this face is as fresh as it was 16 years ago.
Dontchaworry, you’re still well within the five year grace period for very late comments. ;)
Well Im still in the 5 year grace period for late comments right? hahaha
Just wanted to ask… what about MetaPro?
The thing is Im working on a project that used MetaPlus, and I wanna use the updates. Its my final project to graduate as a graphic designer at university, being a student and from Argentina, any of the prices of the FF Meta is too expensive for me. I found the MetaPro in my laptop and it has the same features, is it from the family?
Cheers!
FF Meta Pro is the same typeface, simply in a different font format, just as there was no difference (in design, spacing and kerning) between FF Meta PostScript and FF Meta TrueType before that.
I’m always a bit suspicious when people claim they “find” certain typefaces on their laptop. There are no magically appearing, self installing fonts as far as I know.
Thank you very much!!
Im aware that might be the case, as I bought this laptop from my cousin and he is a website designer. May be he installed some font package or something.
Cheers!!
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