Scala: a typefaces that changed the world
Scala® was launched in November 1989, designed exclusively for Music Centre Vredenburg in Utrecht. A year later, it was released by FontShop International in Berlin, becoming the first serious text typeface on the FontFont label. The award-winning Scala has since become a worldwide bestseller and is regarded as a ‘digital classic’. In 2013, London’s Design Museum selected Scala as one of the ‘Fifty Typefaces that Changed the World’.
Scala’s already huge success was bolstered by the arrival of Scala Sans in 1993. The sans was based primarily on Scala, making it a humanist sans, complete with a real italic, rather than a merely slanted roman.
Scala Hands is a free, highly popular collection of manicules and pointers: serif and sans serif, left- and right-pointing, solid and outline, male and female, thumbs up and thumbs down, and many more.
Scala Jewels is a set of four highly decorative typefaces based on the bold capitals of Scala. While Crystal and Pearl are modelled on classic examples, Diamond and Saphyr are original designs.
In 2021 Martin Majoor launched an independent type foundry under his own name. Majoor is known for his award-winning typefaces (Scala, Seria, Nexus) that were originally published by Fontshop. His Scala and Scala Sans are considered ‘classics’ and are among the first digital typefaces. In collaboration with Jos Buivenga he designed the large and successful Questa family. In his latest typeface ‘Comma Base’, he explores the basic shapes of a typeface, with both typical sans features and at the same time serif elements. It can be seen as a typeface featuring the best of both worlds. Comma Base is the first typeface to be released by his own foundry.
As with everything from Adobe Fonts, you can use these fonts for:
Design Projects
Create images or vector artwork, including logos
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PDFs
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Use fonts to create in-house or commercial video content
How to Use
You may encounter slight variations in the name of this font, depending on where you use it. Here’s what to look for.
Desktop
In application font menus, this font will display:
{{familyCtrl.selectedVariation.preferred_family_name}} {{familyCtrl.selectedVariation.preferred_subfamily_name}}Web
To use this font on your website, use the following CSS:
font-family: {{familyCtrl.selectedVariation.family.css_font_stack.replace('"', '').replace('",', ', ')}};
font-style: italicnormal;
font-weight: {{familyCtrl.selectedVariation.font.web.weight}};
Glyph Support & Stylistic Filters
Fonts in the Adobe Fonts library include support for many different languages, OpenType features, and typographic styles.