Berling Nova
Berling Nova Text      Berling Nova Text Italic      Berling Nova Text Bold      Berling Nova Text Bold Italic      Berling Nova Display      Berling Nova Display Italic

Gallery Images

View all Gallery Images

Design Credits

First seen on MyFonts: April 1st, 2007
Designed by: Karl Erik Forsberg
Designed when: 2004
Letterform design based on: Berling
Contained in Categories: Garalde, Legible, Transitional, Venetian
Design owned by: Linotype
MyFonts Keywords: 1950s, book, books, book text, business text, dynamic, elegant, formal, garalde, legible, magazine, masculine, natural, old-style numerals, oldstyle, roman serif, Scandinavian, serif, transitional, valuable, venetian

Berling Nova

Swedish designer Karl-Erik Forsberg created the original Berling typeface in 1951. Owned by Verbum in Sweden, Berling was completely redesigned and released in 2004, under the name Berling Nova.

Forsberg (1914–1995) is considered one of Sweden’s most masterful graphic designers, and his original Berling has come to be seen as possibly the most definitive Swedish typeface. But a redesign was necessary in order to secure that the spirit of Berling would survive in the digital age.

Linotype, the distributor of the original Berling™ , provided its collection of source materials to the designers working on Berling Nova. Additionally, Akira Kobayashi — Linotype’s Type Director — lent them his advice as their project advanced.

Berling Nova is available in two optical sizes: Text and Display. The original Berling was a classic Renaissance roman face, with fine terminals and sharp, beak-like serifs. If one looks at Berling’s old lead type proofs in the smaller type sizes, it is clear that these had a fuller and more readable form than in later digital versions. So, in order to help return the new Berling Nova to its original splendor, both the base forms and the serifs were softened and inflated. In the text version, the x-height has been increased a bit (by 4%), the diagonal axis is less apparent, and special glyph ranges, such as those for small caps and old style figures, have been included in the font’s character sets. The display version still has the unmistakable “Berling” character that displays Forsberg’s mastery.

Berling Nova is well suited for longer text passages in books, publications, and magazines. This typeface fulfils all the demands that one can make on a legible newspaper typeface. Access to both text and display versions are important to the demanding typographer. This is the first time since the typeface was digitalized that it is possible to use it in order to create truly beautiful and functional typography in all type sizes.

Not quite what you’re looking for?

Try looking at more fonts like this.

‘Berling Nova’ is a Trademark of Verbum AB.

About Us — Testimonials — Sell Your Fonts — Become an Affiliate — Site Map — Sign In

MyFonts   500 Nickerson Road   Marlborough MA 01752   USA
MyFonts and MyFonts.com are registered trademarks of Bitstream, Inc.
WhatTheFont and Starlets are trademarks of Bitstream, Inc.
Copyright © 1999–2009 Bitstream, Inc. PRIVACY POLICY