Dating back to the turn of the last century, DIN is the original “industrial”-strength sans. Its name is an acronym for the German Deutsches Institut für Normung (German Institute for Standardization), and it was first used to identify railroad cars. Although DIN was the standard typeface for highway signage, house numbers and engineering applications for decades, it was not used much by graphic designers until the late 1980s.
Akira Kobayashi, Linotype’s type director, has recently given this venerable sans new life. DIN Next™, to distinguish this typeface from its older brethren, is available in seven weights, from Light to Black, each having complementary italic and condensed counterparts. Also available are four Rounded designs, bringing the new family’s total to 25 designs.
DIN Next is much more than an enlarged version of the original family. Kobayashi included several subtle – and a few not-so-subtle – enhancements to the basic design. He rounded the corners as a nod to part of DIN’s past, as many of the signs set in the original were cut with routers. A suite of old style figures and small caps (definitely not part of DIN’s past) are also included – as are a series of alternate characters that give the family more breadth of character.
The DIN type style may be over 100 years old, but Kobayashi’s DIN Next is as fresh as tomorrow and about as versatile as a digital font can be.