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OCR-B: Adobe [Adrian Frutiger]

Adobe's version of OCR-B, which was originally designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1966 for the European Computer Manufacturer's Association. It is rounded and easier to read than the rounded octagonal OCR-A font, which was designed for machine readability. OCR-B is ugly, malformed and quite useless nowadays. Quoting Linotype: Additional acclaim came after Frutiger was approached to come up with a more pleasing design for the optical character recognition typefaces used for computers. The result was OCR-B, which became the worldwide standard in 1973. Quoting Spiekernmann: The work was commissioned by the European Computer Manufacturers Association ECMA in Geneva. They didn't want to adapt OCR A, which was already used in the USA. Frutiger's job was to make a machine-readable type that was acceptable to the human eye as well. He started in 1963 and designed it on a finer grid than OCR A with its 5x9 squares. Apart from the font for machines he also designed a version for letterpress printing that had lower case characters and subtle stroke variations. The original OCR B was monospaced and had round stroke endings. The second version was proportional and had straight stroke endings.

EXTERNAL LINKS
OCR-B: Adobe
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INTERNAL LINKS
OCR fonts ⦿ Type design in Switzerland ⦿ Letterpress ⦿