Contents At a glance: DB Head DB Sans DB Sans Condensed DB Sans Compressed DB Office DB Serif DB News DB Plan Corporate design guidelines: Font families and font styles Basic typographical principles File formats and contacts Replacement fonts Additional fonts Just like our logo and our identity color DB Red, our corporate font DB Type is a universal element of our visual appearance. A font is the printed counterpart of spoken language. And just like the sound of a person's voice, the character of our corporate font is perceived unknowingly and thereby directly impacts our public image. DB Type is a clear, easy to read typeface. It has a distinctly soft and round appearance that people regard as natural and straightforward. Its everyday character appeals to all target groups. DB Type has won the Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany in Gold for its outstanding functionality. It is our exclusive corporate font and applied solely within the corporate design of the DB Group. The demands placed on our corporate font are as diverse as our company itself. DB Type has therefore been tailored to meet individual needs and encompasses eight font families for different application purposes as well as several language versions for our international markets. For questions on conditions for acquiring and using DB Type please contact Mr. Frank Steitiya via Email: Email Frank Steitiya [1] Page 1
At a glance: With its typical bold-light contrast, DB Head defines the typographical image of our headlines. It is designed for large copy such as headlines and subheadlines, but is also used for short paragraphs of text using a font size above 15 pt. Page 2
DB Sans is our basic font in advertising, publications and electronic media. As the stylistic core of the corporate font with the characteristic features of DB Type, it shapes the expression of our corporate design It is designed for larger quantities of copy and retains excellent readability even at small font sizes. That s partly because some letters have received hints of serifs for better differentiation. Page 3
DB Sans Condensed requires little space, as the letters are narrower than in DB Sans. It is suitable for narrow text columns and used mainly for marginalia, tables, captions and footnotes. Page 4
DB Sans Compressed is the narrowest font family of DB Type. It is used in timetable books and the small print of terms and conditions, and wherever saving space is the chief consideration. With their compact look, DB Sans Compressed Bold and Black are especially favored for headlines in magazines and newspapers. Page 5
The DB Office is installed on all computer work stations of the DB and is used for all text created with Microsoft Office applications. Its letter spacing equals that of Arial, which eases any transfer from DB Office to Arial. DB Office is optimized for on-screen depiction and in-office printing. Page 6
DB Serif is the Antiqua version of DB Sans. As a classical serif font it is especially suitable for large quantities of text and used primarily for text-intensive publications. Its lively italic and unique small caps versions provide subtle highlights within the body copy. It is a timeless font, used especially for high-value printed matter, i.e. annual reports and certificates. Page 7
DB News is a more robust version of DB Serif, developed as the basic font for newspapers and magazines of the DB Group. Even under reduced print quality, such as newspaper printing, its pronounced serifs hold their ground and ensure comfortable readability even in longer texts. Page 8
The DB Plan font family includes special characters used especially in travel information media. Its arrows, numbers and letters are also used for numeration and alphabetic structuring in maps, overviews and graphics. Page 9
Corporate design guidelines: Font families and font styles Page 10
Here you can find the font DB Plan for download: Download: DB Plan File format: ZIP File size: 15kB Our corporate font DB Type consists of eight harmonized and combinable font families. DB Head, DB Sans, DB Sans Condensed, DB Sans Compressed and DB Office are sans serif fonts. DB Serif and DB News are Antiqua versions. DB Plan uses special characters. Font families containing Alternate in their name include alternative character shapes easily recognizable in the letters w, i, r and g. They extend the typographical repertoire of our corporate font not least with future requirements in mind and are used i.e. for our product names. Small caps versions containing height reduced capital characters instead of lower case characters include the letters SC in their names. The abbreviation TF within a font name stands for tabular figures. In tables they are all identically wide and stand in exact columns. Tabular figures are also found in DB Sans, DB Office and DB Head Alternate. Web fonts for electronic media are available for selected styles of DB Type (marked * in the above table). Web fonts Basic typographical principles DB Type is used according to media requirements and the rules of typography and craftsmanship, so that content is functional, readable and readily understandable. We prefer leftaligned ragged type with easy-to-read spacing of letters, words and lines, and with mixed case lettering. Exceptions are abbreviations and proper names, which may be set using capital letters. Logos do not appear within copy. Highlights are created using style or color (not spacing or font size). Page 11
File formats and contacts DB Type is an exclusive font, which may be used only by companies of the DB Group and only for purposes of DB corporate design. For a license fee, the font is available to external DB contractors through the company URW++ and may be used for assigned tasks only. Any additional usage is prohibited. DB Type is available as TrueType and PostScript Type 1 fonts for either Mac or Windows, and additionally in the cross-platform OpenType format, and as a web font. For questions on conditions for acquiring and using DB Type: URW++ Design & Development GmbH Herr Frank Steitiya Poppenbütteler Bogen 36 22399 Hamburg Tel.: +49 40 60605-223, Fax: -111 Email to Frank Steitiya [2] go to URW++ [3] Special DB Type versions are available for various languages with differing diacritical marks: West- and East European languages, Turkish and Romanian. Replacement fonts Non-Latin text is preferably depicted in a font that resembles DB Type. In the case of DB Sans these are fonts that are similar in width and line thickness. Numbers and Latin characters are generally typeset using DB Type. Use Arial as font for Greek and Cyrillic texts. Page 12
Additional fonts Deutsche Bahn AG 1 to 6 This pictogram font consists of six special character sets for use in travel information media and timetables. DB WLS This special font in used for the orientation systems of railway stations and passenger trains. Detailed information can be found here (German only): 1.3 Schrift (German) Contact Any questions about the contents of this page? [4] published: 31.01.2014 Verweisliste [1] Email Frank Steitiya: frank@urwpp.de [2] Email to Frank Steitiya: frank@urwpp.de [3] go to URW++: http://www.urwpp.de [4] Any questions about the contents of this page?: design@deutschebahn.com Page 13