License
This font software is the property of Monotype GmbH, or one of its affiliated entities (collectively, Monotype) and its use by you is covered under the terms of a license agreement. You have obtained this font software either directly from Monotype or together with software distributed by one of the licensees of Monotype. This software is a valuable asset of Monotype. Unless you have entered into a specific license agreement granting you additional rights, your use of this software is limited by the terms of the actual license agreement you have entered into with Monotype. You may not copy or distribute this software. If you have any questions concerning your rights you should review the license agreement you received with the software. You can learn more about Monotype by clicking here: www.monotype.com.
Explanation
FF Real was originally conceived by Erik Spiekermann as one text weight and one headline weight to be used as the only faces in his biography Hello I am Erik, edited by Johannes Erler, published in 2014. While Spiekermann drew the alphabets, he passed on the font data to Ralph du Carrois who cleaned it up and completed it. In the meantime FF Real has been extended to a family of two styles and 13 weights each.The design of FF Real is rooted in early static grotesques from the turn of the century. Several German type foundries among them the Berlin-based foundries Theinhardt and H. Berthold AG released such designs between 1898 and 1908. The semi-bold weight of a poster-size typeface that was lighter than most of the according semi-bolds in metal type at the time, gave the impetus to FF Reals regular weight. In the words of Spiekermann, the historical example is the real, non-fake version, as it were, the royal sans serif face, thus giving his new typeface the name Real (which is also in keeping with his four-letter names, i.e. FF Meta, FF Unit).FF Real is a convincing re-interpretation of the German grotesque style, but with much more warmth and improved legibility. With a hint towards the warmer American grotesques, Spiekermann added those typical Anglo-American features such as a three-story g and an 8 with a more defined loop. To better distinguish characters in small text sizes, FF Real Text comes in old style figures, f and t are wider, the capital I is equipped with serifs, as is the lowercase l. Whats more, i-dots and all punctuation are round.In Spiekermanns biography FF Real Text has proven to endure all challenges of a proper text face without an italic, while FF Real Head cuts a fine figure in larger sizes with a more reduced look.
