The First Typeface for the Mars Colony

I believe that humanity will soon make a new "giant leap" on Mars! This great mission is worthy of its own font. Scientists prepare to explore new planets, Rentafont prepares to release the first multiplanetary typeface.

The typeface called "Mars Type" for Mars should be as Gill Sans is for England or Helvetica is for the whole Earth.

Mars Type is sans serif with open counters and other features that enhance its recognizability and readability. Ideal for way finding and interfaces in the Martian colony. The main feature of the font is a special form of oval characters (perfect circle outside, "porthole" inside) and the axis of some characters (eg. slash) that corresponds with the angle of the Mars axial tilt – 25,19°. Vertically cut finials, as in Futura or Gill Sans, allow the new font to have a high capacity, as in humanistic sans serifs, but maintain visible geometric look. Yevgen Sadko started working on this typeface in 2018.

UPD: Enjoy the very first 360° video about font!

Use 4K quality to see more details during this meditative martian orbit flight )

At the time of this publication it already has:

• Latin and Cyrillic;
• numerals and punctuation;
• kerning for English, Ukrainian and Russian texts.

UPD: The typeface is ready! Download Mars Type Free
UPD2: The typeface is updated! Rent/buy Mars Type PRO Variable font

The next version of the Martian font will include not only Cyrillic in the traditional form. The additional graphemes optimized for the Ukrainian language will be added.

The public release of Mars Type on rentafont.com, rentafont.com.ua and rentafont.ru is scheduled for early 2019. The basic style or even the entire font family will be available for free download.

Register on Rentafont and you will not miss this epic moment!

UPD: The typeface is ready! Download Mars Type Free
UPD2: The typeface is updated! Rent/buy Mars Type PRO Variable font

What is the meaning of the font for Mars

I hope you understand that this is not a simple PR on the trendy theme of Mars. I am designing Mars Type to support two very important ideas for me: the dream of space exploration and the dream of improving awareness of typography and type design, especially in Ukraine.

Many people in my country use fonts illegally. Some people even don’t realize that typography is an important leverage of visual communication. This misunderstanding hinders the development of our font market and all modern Ukrainian culture. Therefore, I want Ukrainians to hear more about fonts, to understand them as designer’s tools and cultural artifacts.

People are ready to understand what is said in the media, that has a particular author. Those who are familiar with at least one type designer will be less likely to pirate fonts and will be willing pay more for them. This is proved by annual surveys of font users around the world.

A special typeface for the Martian colony is sure to attract the attention of ordinary people. Thus, many of them will discover not only a new planet – Mars, but also a new profession – type design.

My dream is to visit Mars and see a good typeface, chosen according to rational criteria, for the specific conditions of the planet and the purposes of the settlers, not just to imitate Sci-Fi movies or famous brands.

If my idea inspires you, please help this font get to Mars! Rentafont is looking for like-minded people to implement some challenging tasks:

• make a cool video presentation of the font; DONE!
• convey information about the new font to ESA, NASA, Elon Musk;
• add Asian and other non Latin and non Cyrillic characters;
• add emojis and icons;
• make a Variable Font with width and Weight axes

Useful links:

• → Download Mars Type Free
• → Rent/Buy Variable Font Mars Type PRO
• → History of Creation of Mars Type from Sketch to Font File (in Russian)
• → How to Come Up with Typeface, Step-by-Step Guide (in Russian)
• → An Article About Five Fonts with a Great Mission (in English)
• → Photos of Mars in good quality by ESA