Typophile

Latin characters set in Levenim MT

kurtwm

So the short story here is that I've inherited this logotype on a project and the designer used Levenim MT to set the Latin characters. However, that's a Hebrew font:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/font.aspx?FMID=1889

What's the best way to approach this?
- Should I attempt to find and substitute a Latin font with identical glyphs? If so, which one?
0r
- Should I just accept that Levenim MT was chosen for its Latin character set?

It's a geometric sans serif and I don't believe the Latin characters are from Futura, because the lower case 'c' has terminals cut radially rather than vertically-sheared.

I've run into this problem occasionally and the more general question I have is:
Are the Latin characters displayed in non-Latin fonts:
a) drawn specifically for that non-Latin font,
b) borrowed glyphs from another family,
c) substituted by the OS (Windows in the Levenim MT case)
or
d) one of the above depending on the font?

The follow-up question is, when this happens, a designer uses a non-Latin font for Latin characters, what's the best way to identify the family of the Latin glyphs?

Thanks for your help.

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maginatics-type-id.png4.24 KB
Hrant H Papazian

Most multi-script fonts fall into one of two categories: either the non-Latin is derived directly from a pre-existing Latin (typically resulting in an ugly and dysfunctional charicature) or a sort-of-compatible Latin is thrown in with a decent non-Latin (which is of course non-ideal as well). In either case outline theft could be involved.

The case with Levenim MT is clearly the latter, and since it's from a legitimate source one could feel safe that no outline theft was involved. The Latin seems to be a cross between Futura and Avant Garde - it doesn't match the Hebrew in style. Ideally you might find a Latin font that has the look & feel of the Hebrew - but it's going to be hard to match the color (for starters). The top-tier solution would be having just the right Latin custom-made (but that's not cheap).

what's the best way to identify the family of the Latin glyphs?

Ask on Typophile. :-)

hhp

fvilanakis

The Levenin MT latins seems to come from Century Gothic (by Monotype of course)

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I found it using Find my Font - http://www.findmyfont.com

kurtwm

Thanks fvilanakis, looks like you got it exactly right with Century Gothic. This makes sense considering that Microsoft paid Monotype to develop Levenim MT, so they must have included the Latin characters from Century Gothic.

And I hadn't seen findmyfont.com, so that's a useful resource. Much appreciated.

Also, thanks hrant for clarifying the ways that multi-script fonts include character sets. It does appear to my eyes that the stylistic match between Levenim MT's Hebrew characters and Century Gothic is mediocre at best.

Well done folks.

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