Segoe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Segoe (pronounced /ˈsiːɡoʊ/) is a series of typefaces named after Segoe Road in Madison, Wisconsin, where one of Monotype's engineers lived. The Segoe name, although originally registered to Monotype, is a registered trademark of the Microsoft Corporation.

Contents 1 Segoe 2 Segoe UI 2.1 Characteristics 2.2 Segoe UI Mono 2.3 Characters 3 Other variations of Segoe 3.1 Segoe Print 3.2 Segoe Script 3.3 Segoe Chess 3.4 Segoe Media Center 3.5 Segoe TV 3.6 Segoe News Symbol 3.7 Other font families 4 Controversies 5 Availability 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Segoe

Segoe was designed by Steve Matteson during his employment at Agfa Monotype.^[1] Licensed to Microsoft for use as a branding typeface and user interface font, it was designed to be friendly and legible. Steve created a range of weights and italics with a humanist feel.

[edit] Segoe UI

Segoe UI

Category	Sans-serif
Designer(s)	Steve Matteson
Foundry	Monotype
Sample

Segoe UI is a sans-serif typeface used in Microsoft products for user interface text, as well as for some online user assistance material, designed to improve the consistency in how users see all text across all languages. It is distinguishable from its predecessor Tahoma and the Mac OS user interface font Lucida Grande by its rounder letters. Segoe UI was produced by Monotype Imaging.^[2]

Segoe UI is just one of many fonts (at least 27) using the Segoe trademark; others include an extensive range of branding print fonts^[3] used internally by Microsoft and their advertising agencies, the Windows Vista handwriting fonts Segoe Script and Segoe Print, Segoe Chess, a symbol encoded chess font, several Segoe Media Center fonts, and Segoe TV, which is built into MSN TV set-top-boxes.

[edit] Characteristics

Segoe UI is optimized for Vista's default ClearType rendering environment, and it is significantly less legible when ClearType is disabled, except at key user interface sizes (8, 9 and 10 point) where Segoe UI has been hinted for bi-level rendering. The standard font size increased to 9 pt. in Windows Vista to accommodate for better layout and readability for all languages.

The Windows Vista version of Segoe UI (version 5.00) contains complete Unicode 4.1 coverage for Latin, Greek, Cyrillic and Arabic (romans only), totaling 2843 glyphs in the regular weight.

[edit] Segoe UI Mono

Segoe UI Mono is a version of Segoe UI with monospace characters. It supports Latin (including Eastern European, and Turkish), Greek, Cyrillic, Hebrew and Thai characters, and symbols, geometric shapes and drawing elements.

The family includes 2 fonts in 2 weights, without italics.

[edit] Characters

Segoe UI contains almost 2850 characters. If you have the font installed the following subset should render using the font, or else will fall back onto the default serif font used by your browser (note: Segoe is a sans serif font).

The characters are listed below:

Segoe UI has a true cursive italic, unlike the oblique used in Frutiger and Helvetica.

The characters are listed below:

[edit] Other variations of Segoe

[edit] Segoe Print

It is a font family based on the handwriting of Monotype Imaging employee Brian Allen^[4], developed by Carl Crossgrove, James Grieshaber and Karl Leuthold.

The family includes 2 fonts in 2 weights, without italics. It supports WGL character sets.

Preview of characters: Lowercase and Cyrillic:

Segoe Print: a, b, c, ç, d, e, f, g, ğ, h, ı, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, ö, p, q, r, s, ş, t, u, ü, v, w, x, y and z. а, б, в, г, д, е, ж, з, и, й, к, л, м, н, о, п, р, с, т, у, ф, х, ц, ч, ш, щ, ъ, ы, ь, э, ю, я, ґ, є, і and ї.

[edit] Segoe Script

It is a font family designed by Carl Crossgrove based on the handwriting of Brian Allen, but includes extended strokes found in cursive handwriting. It is produced by Monotype Imaging. By using stylistic alternate OpenType feature, the unlinked letters become accessible.

The family includes 2 fonts in 2 weights, without italics. It supports WGL character sets.

Preview of characters: Lowercase:

Segoe Script: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, and z.

[edit] Segoe Chess

It is a symbol encoded chess font, designed by Steve Matteson and Jim Ford.

[edit] Segoe Media Center

It is a font family built for and privately installed with Windows Media Center in 2 weights: light and semibold. It resembles the original Segoe, but is not optimized for ClearType rendering.

[edit] Segoe TV

It is a font family built into MSN TV set-top-boxes. It retains characteristics of the original Segoe, such as sans-serif capital I and straight tail in capital Q, whereas other characters have been redrawn such as the i and j.

[edit] Segoe News Symbol

It is a font containing a set of dingbats popular with newspapers, including weather, astrology, playing card suits, dice, stars, pointing hands, pencils, check boxes, and other icons.

[edit] Other font families

Glyphs apparently derived from Segoe can be found in the following Microsoft font families: Malgun Gothic (Korean), Microsoft JhengHei (Traditional Chinese), Microsoft YaHei (Simplified Chinese), Gisha (Hebrew), Leelawadee (Thai). In these fonts some of the glyph shapes diverge significantly from Segoe UI and the Frutiger/Myriad model and are in some ways more calligraphic. In Gisha and Leelawadee the cap M is narrower and has a raised apex, the lowercase i and l have tails, and the cap I has no serifs. These characteristics are also seen in Segoe UI italic.

[edit] Controversies

There have been some controversies over Segoe UI's similarity to the Frutiger family of typefaces, licensed by German font foundry Linotype (as of August 2006 a wholly owned subsidiary of Monotype Imaging). In 2004, Microsoft registered certain Segoe and Segoe Italic fonts as original font designs with the European Union trademark and design office. Linotype protested, and in February 2006, the EU withdrew Microsoft's registration.^[5] In its submission to the EU, Microsoft claimed that Linotype had failed to properly prove that it had been selling Frutiger and Frutiger Next prior to 2004. The EU rejected these claims. It should be noted that the EU looks at type specimens at 16 point size, in which many of the subtle differences of similar fonts are not noticeable; notwithstanding, this also prevents extremely subtle differences, which could be seen as solely for the reason of obtaining legality, from ensuring that the font gets validated.^{[citation needed]} Microsoft did not appeal the decision.

As illustrated here, several letters have very distinct forms, reflecting the fonts' different intended uses (low-resolution screen display for Segoe UI, airport signage for Frutiger). However, Ulrich Stiehl, an outspoken critic of font plagiarism (who also attacks Linotype and Adobe on his site), has claimed that many of these differences were introduced in more recent versions of the font, while earlier versions were closer to Frutiger.^[6][7]

Simon Daniels, a program manager in Microsoft's typography group, quoted in a November 2005 blog entry, states "The original Segoe fonts were not created for or by Microsoft. It was an existing Monotype design which we licensed and extensively extended and customized to meet the requirements of different processes, apps and devices."^[8] A Microsoft public relations spokesman, who asked not to be named, stated in April 2006:

Segoe was an original design developed by Agfa Monotype (now Monotype Imaging) in 2000. In 2003, we acquired the original Segoe fonts and used them to develop an extended family of fonts retaining the Segoe name. Many of these new fonts received design patent protection in the United States. Segoe was not derived from Frutiger. Microsoft also has a current up-to-date license that allows us to distribute certain Frutiger fonts in connection with Microsoft products including Office and Windows. There are distinct differences between Segoe and Frutiger. Additionally, unlike clone typefaces, the Segoe family of fonts are not metrically compatible with Frutiger so cannot be used as replacements.^[9]

Under United States copyright law, the abstract letter shapes of functional text fonts cannot be copyrighted; only the computer programming code in a font is given copyright protection. This makes the selling of clone fonts possible.

On August 1, 2006, Monotype Imaging announced that it had acquired Linotype from its parent company. Whether or not this signals an end to this chapter in the history of the Segoe fonts remains to be seen.^[10]

[edit] Availability

The Segoe UI font family can be obtained as part of Microsoft Office 2007 or Windows Vista. Certain Segoe fonts, but not Segoe UI, were included in Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, replacing Trebuchet MS.

Segoe UI is installed into Windows XP if the user installs Windows Live Messenger, or Windows Live Mail, which are available as free downloads. Microsoft Word Viewer and Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 2007 install certain Segoe fonts, but not Segoe UI.

An early version of Segoe, possibly an evaluation version, was included with certain versions of SuSE Linux, but no longer ships as part of that operating system. The first company to distribute Segoe, under license from Monotype, was Scala^{[citation needed]}, a Canadian electronic signage company (unrelated to the typeface FF Scala). On June 7, 2005 Scala announced^[11] that Segoe was being removed from its InfoChannel product "due to licensing issues". Scala replaced Segoe with Bitstream Vera fonts.

At one time, Microsoft also posted a package called Print Ad for Microsoft Dynamics Business Management Solutions Brief Description to the Microsoft downloads center. The package included TrueType and PostScript Type 1 beta versions of the Segoe branding fonts along with PowerPoint templates and marketing material.^[12]

Segoe Print, Segoe Script are included with Windows Vista.

Segoe Chess 1.00 is included with Microsoft Office 2007.

Retail versions of Segoe families (except original Segoe, Segoe Media Center) are available through Ascender Corporation. On April 13, 2007, Ascender announced the release of Segoe TV.^[13]

Segoe News Symbol is included with the "Sample Font Pack" for the Syndicated Client Experiences Starter Kit, made by Ascender Corporation.^[14]

Although Segoe Print, Segoe Script and Segoe UI can be installed on Mac OS (like all TrueType flavor OpenType fonts), Microsoft does not include them with Mac Office or any other Mac product.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Microsoft Typography: Segoe Chess, Segoe Print, Segoe Script, Segoe UI, Segoe UI Book
• Cleartype gallery
• Ascender Segoe font family: Segoe UI, Segoe TV, Segoe
• Legal Background of the Segoe Case, an anti-Segoe perspective
• Is Microsoft's Vista Font Just a Copy?, Brian Livingston, 18 April 2006