Fira (typeface)

Fira Sans
CategorySans-serif
ClassificationHumanist
Designer(s)Erik Spiekermann
Ralph du Carrois
FoundrybBox Type GmbH
Date released2013
LicenseSIL Open Font License
Design based onFF Meta
Latest release version4.3

Fira Sans is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Erik Spiekermann, Ralph du Carrois, Anja Meiners, Botio Nikoltchev of Carrois Type Design and Patryk Adamczyk of Mozilla Corporation.[1][2][3][4] Originally commissioned by Telefónica and Mozilla Corporation as part of the joint effort during the development of Firefox OS. It is a slightly wider and calmer adaptation of Spiekermann's typeface Meta[5][6], which was used at Mozilla's brand typeface at the time but optimized for legibility on (small) screens. With the name Fira, Mozilla wanted to communicate the concepts of fire, light and joy but in a language agnostic way to signal the project's global nature. Fira was released in 2013 initially under the Apache License and later reissued under the SIL Open Font License.

In its initial 2013 release, Fira Sans was available in four weights with corresponding italics: light, regular, medium, and bold. In May 2014, the number of weights was increased to 16.[7] In 2015, Mozilla added a condensed style.[8] The family has a large character set including text figures and small caps.

Fira Sans is the font of choice for the Government of New Zealand[9] and the Government of Iceland.[10]

  1. ^ "870998 – [Style Guide] Type Guidelines for Firefox OS product page". Bugzilla.mozilla.org. Retrieved 2013-08-25.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Spiekerblog-20130730 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference typographie.info was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference MUXQ-2-2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Erik Spiekermann: Type Is Visible Language, Beyond Tellerrand, Düsseldorf 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggQpDu63kk0
  6. ^ Butterick, Matthew. "Fira Sans: review". Typographica. Retrieved 14 November 2014.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Donotlick was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ "Fira Sans Condensed". Font Squirrel. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  9. ^ "NZ Government: Typography". New Zealand Government. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
  10. ^ "Stjórnarráð Íslands - Hönnunarstaðall". Government of Iceland. Retrieved 22 January 2021.