Otl Aicher one of the leading German graphic designers developed in 1988 the typeface Rotis, named after the town Olt Aicher lived in. With Rotis he tried to create to maximum legibilty face with a high x-height. Available in four font families from sans to serif, Rotis typeface can be found everywhere around you. Unfortunally Olt Aicher died in a traffic accident in 1991. Linotype currently owns the Rotis Font Family, where all of the font variantions can be bought.

Rotis® gives an impression of both strength and generosity and all four versions can be used interchangeably with one another. Rotis® is suitable for book/text, documentation/business reports, business correspondence, magazines, newspapers, posters, advertiments, multimedia, corporate design. from Linotype

During my holiday in the beautiful German Steigerwald (near Nürnberg and Bamberg) I came across the Rotis Font Family quite often, this is a photo showcase collection of the Font Familiy Rotis Sans.

A book about photography

This is where I first spotted Rotis, during a visit at the bookstore and came to the idea to putting this post together. As you can see, Rotis works well for legibility and design.

Street Signs

We were walking down the streets where I took this photo of a small billboard, The font family Rotis has enough detail to show at large points. Good readable from a distance.

Cafe Signage

Sitting down for a espresso where I saw this acrylic nameplate, clearly the usage of the noticable ´e´ of Rotis. A good color usage as where the brick will look dark from a distance the off-white lettering will stand out.

1000 Jahre Bamberg

During the celebration of 1000 years of the city Bamberg various information signposts has been put up in the city (now only available in the Church), a clear usage of font Rotis.

Museum Nürnberg

We went to various museum in Nürnberg, but this one got my attention. The openinghours and detailed information folder about the museum was all created using Rotis.

Shopping

My wife wanted to go shopping, so I sat down and read some magazines. Here I spotted Rotis in a Loreal print ad, see the payoff.

Escape route plan

When walking down a mayor cityhall I spotted this Escape signage. All type is printed using Rotis font family, easy to read.

Bookstore

Going to a bookstore in Germany is a pleasure for all typophiles, you can recognize a font on almost every cover you see. I spotted the Rotis on the cover of this book.

Door Signage

A small signage for a local company called Temme uses Rotis on their door signage, a bold versions and a regular are displayed in the design.

Museum Gerolzhofen

When visiting the museum in the small city of Gerolzhofen you can find the openinghours plate created using the font Rotis. With so many lines and text Rotis proves a clear legibilty.

Arte Caffe

At the tourist guide shop I found this business card all designed using the type Rotis. Unfortunally we could not find the coffe shop, but I sure liked the design.

Kind of noodles

At the grocery we bought some kind of noodles (Spätzle), you can get this typical German kind of noodle with many dishes. At the package I spotted the Rotis, small printed but readable.

Rotling Wine

With food you can drink wine, I bought this dry Franken white wine of 2007. The label was printed using the type Rotis. If you can find a bottle I can suggested it, tasted very good.

Steigerwald walk

The area we stayed was Steigerwald, a great forrest area and we went for many walks there. Our guide was a map of the area, with on the frontpage a design using Rotis.

Shoppingbag

At the local bakery we bought typical German bread (really dark with good taste), we carried the bread in this paperbag, printed with the details of the bakery using Rotis.

Franken Brunnen

Water is good for everybody and Franken Brunnen does it all the way, they use Rotis on almost every form of visual communication.

Availability of Font Family Rotis

The font package is available in four type families, via Linotype:

• Rotis® Serif Font Family
• Rotis® Sans Serif Font Family
• Rotis® Semi Sans Font Family
• Rotis® Semi Serif Font Family

Personally I like Rotis Sans Serif Font Family (2nd on the list above) the best, it has a very distinctive look and feel with a high legibilty for usage in many fields of visual communication.

More information about Olt Aicher

There is much written about Olt Aicher who was not only a font designer but also a graphic designer who had a big part in designing the Münich Olympic Games in 1972.

• Information about Olt Aicher at Wikipedia.
• Great article about Olt Aicher at Underconsideration.
• Work from Olt Aicher at a huge flickr pool to be found here.
• The graphic design work he created for the Münich Olympic Games at this website.
• Other interesting and informative article about the type Rotis, here at manic.com.

So tell me..

Did you have your Rotis today?