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Nimbus Sans

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nimbus Sans
CategorySans-serif
ClassificationNeo-grotesque
DesignerURW Studio
FoundryURW++
Date released1999
Design based onHelvetica
VariationsURW Heisei Gothic

Nimbus Sans is a sans-serif typeface created by URW++, based on Helvetica.

Nimbus Sans

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This version uses URW++ font source and historically has three optical sizes, labelled T (Text), D (Display), and P (Poster),[1] although the P version is generally no longer available.[2][3] Some fonts in the family support Western Europe, East Europe, Turkish, Baltic, and Romanian languages.

As the labels suggest, Nimbus Sans D and P are created for larger texts, thus have lighter font weights and tighter spacing. The two optical sizes have similar designs, with Nimbus Sans P being even tighter. Nimbus Sans P includes alternate designs for currency symbols.[citation needed]

Florian Hardwig has described the display-oriented styles of Nimbus Sans P, with tight spacing, as more reminiscent of Helvetica as used in the 1970s from cold type than the early official Helvetica digitisations.[4]

Weight condensed medium extended
Black roman roman, italic roman
Bold roman roman, italic roman
Regular roman roman, italic roman
Light - roman, italic roman
(D) fonts
Weight condensed medium extended
Black roman, italic roman, italic roman, outline
Bold roman, italic roman, italic, outline roman
Regular roman, italic roman, italic roman
Light roman, italic roman, italic roman
Ultra Light - roman -
(P) fonts
Weight condensed medium extended
Black roman, italic roman, italic -
Bold roman, italic roman, italic -
Regular roman, italic roman, italic -
Light roman, italic roman, italic -
Ultra Light - roman -

Nimbus Sans Diagonal

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It is a version with more right lean than Nimbus Sans italic fonts. The family currently only includes 1 font, in Black weight in medium width.

Nimbus Sans Mono

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It is a monospaced variant of Nimbus Sans. The family currently only includes 1 font, in Regular weight in medium width.

Language extension

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Nimbus Sans has multiple language-specific versions, supporting Arabic and Hebrew,[5] Chinese,[6] Japanese,[7] Thai,[8] and Devanagari scripts.[9]

There is also Nimbus Sans Global, which covers all the above languages in addition to Korean and Vietnamese.[10]

Nimbus Sans L

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Created in 1987, Nimbus Sans L is a version of Nimbus Sans using Adobe font sources. The typeface was shipped with Apple's LaserWriter II, hence the "L" label.[1] The family includes 17 fonts in 5 weights and 2 widths, with Nimbus Sans L Extra Black only available in condensed roman format.

A subset of Nimbus Sans L, which includes regular and bold weight fonts in all widths and styles, were released under the GPL and AFPL in Type 1 format in 1996[11][12][13][14][15][16] and LPPL in 2009,[17] making it one of several freely licensed fonts offered by URW++. Nimbus Sans L is part of the Ghostscript free font collection, a set of free alternatives to the 35 basic PostScript fonts (which include Helvetica).[18][19][20][21] The Ghostscript version was updated as recently as in 2020 [22] and was extended to include support for Greek and Cyrillic characters.

Nimbus Sans L has metrics similar to Helvetica and Arial, and is a standard typeface in many Linux distributions and open-source applications.[23][24][25] For example, it was used as default font in OpenOffice.org Calc and Impress,[citation needed] but its successor LibreOffice used Liberation Sans as the default sans-serif font. However, its popularity also leads to confusion, since it is often simply called Nimbus Sans in the open-source sphere, without the "L" label.[26][27]

TeX Gyre Heros

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A derivative of Nimbus Sans L created for TeX environments and also in the OpenType format.[28] It includes limited support for Greek characters with a provisional design.[29]

FreeSans

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Main article: GNU FreeFont

As part of the GNU FreeFont superfamilies, FreeSans extends Nimbus Sans L to cover a wide range of Unicode characters.[30][31]

Nimbus Sans Novus

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Nimbus Sans Novus is a variant published by URW++ using Linotype's Stempel Studio source, based on Neue Helvetica,[32] but without the extended width. Some digital releases have support for Greek and Cyrillic characters,[33] some do not.[34][35]

Comparisons between Neue Helvetica and Nimbus Sans Novus at the same font size.

While the design of the characters is based on Neue Helvetica, the two typefaces differ metrically: Nimbus Sans Novus has smaller x-height and is narrower at the same font size (but not at the same x-height).

The weight systems of the two typefaces also drastically differ. For instance, the Regular weight of Nimbus Sans Novus resembles the Light weight of Neue Helvetica, while the Medium weight of Nimbus Sans Novus resembles the Regular Neue Helvetica design. Nimbus Sans Novus has a Semibold weight, but Neue Helvetica does not.

The font names ending with (D) have tighter letter spacing.

Weight condensed medium
Ultra roman, italic -
Black roman, italic roman, italic
Heavy roman, italic roman, italic
Bold roman, italic roman, italic, outline
Semi Bold roman, italic roman, italic
Medium roman, italic roman, italic
Regular roman, italic roman, italic
Light roman, italic roman, italic
Ultra Light roman, italic roman, italic
(D) fonts
Weight condensed medium
Ultra roman -
Black roman roman, outline
Heavy roman roman
Bold roman roman
Semi Bold roman roman
Medium roman roman
Regular roman roman
Light roman roman
Ultra Light roman roman

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b ""Disco Sucks!" - Fonts In Use". Retrieved 2026-01-23.
  2. ^ "Nimbus Sans Font". Retrieved 2026-01-24.
  3. ^ "Nimbus Sans Font - YouWorkForThem". Retrieved 2026-01-24.
  4. ^ Hardwig, Florian (30 September 2013). "National Trust Tree Appeal Poster". Fonts In Use. Archived from the original on 31 March 2016. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
  5. ^ "Nimbus Sans Arabic Font". Retrieved 2026-01-12.
  6. ^ "Nimbus Sans Chinese Simplified Font". Retrieved 2026-01-12.
  7. ^ "Nimbus Sans Japanese Font". Retrieved 2026-01-12.
  8. ^ "Nimbus Sans Thai Font". Retrieved 2026-01-12.
  9. ^ "Nimbus Sans Devanagari". Retrieved 2026-01-22.
  10. ^ "Nimbus Sans Global Font". Retrieved 2026-01-12.
  11. ^ Finally! Good-quality free (GPL) basic-35 PostScript Type 1 fonts., archived from the original on 2002-10-23, retrieved 2010-05-06
  12. ^ Finally! Good-quality free (GPL) basic-35 PostScript Type 1 fonts. (TXT), retrieved 2010-05-06
  13. ^ "Fonts and TeX". 2009-12-19. Retrieved 2010-05-06.
  14. ^ Five years after: Report on international TEX font projects (PDF), 2007, retrieved 2010-05-06
  15. ^ ghostscript-fonts-std-4.0.tar.gz - GhostScript 4.0 standard fonts - AFPL license, 1996-06-28, archived from the original (TAR.GZ) on 2011-04-24, retrieved 2010-05-06
  16. ^ ghostscript-fonts-std-6.0.tar.gz - GhostScript 6.0 standard fonts - GPL license, 1999-12-22, archived from the original (TAR.GZ) on 2011-04-24, retrieved 2010-05-06
  17. ^ URW++ making original 35 fonts available under LPPL, retrieved 2010-05-06
  18. ^ "Fonts and font facilities supplied with Ghostscript". Retrieved 2025-12-16.
  19. ^ "Linux fonts (mostly X11)". 2009-08-15. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  20. ^ "Ghostscript SVN - URW fonts". Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  21. ^ "URW font ttf conversions". Ghostscript. Archived from the original on 19 September 2015. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  22. ^ "Latest (as of 2020/09/10) font release from URW++". Retrieved 2026-01-10.
  23. ^ "Debian package - gsfonts". Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  24. ^ "Fonts". Archived from the original on 14 April 2016. Retrieved 2026-01-31.
  25. ^ "Specifying fonts in graphics". SAS & R. 19 April 2010. Archived from the original on 21 April 2016. Retrieved 2026-01-31.
  26. ^ "GitHub - protamail/NimbusSans: URW++ Nimbus Sans family of fonts with fixed vertical metrics". Retrieved 2026-01-31.
  27. ^ "Arch Linux - gsfonts". Retrieved 2026-01-31.
  28. ^ "The TeX Gyre (TG) Collection of Fonts". Retrieved 2026-01-06.
  29. ^ "CTAN: Package tex-gyre-heros". ctan.org. Retrieved 2026-01-06.
  30. ^ "Gnu FreeFont: Design notes". Retrieved 2016-01-06.
  31. ^ "Gnu FreeFont support for OpenType OS/2 character ranges". Retrieved 2026-01-06.
  32. ^ Nimbus Sans Novus in use - Fonts In Use, retrieved 2026-01-31
  33. ^ Nimbus Sans Novus Font, retrieved 2026-01-10
  34. ^ Nimbus Sans Novus Font - YouWorkForThem, retrieved 2026-01-30
  35. ^ Nimbus Sans Novus Font — Paratype.com, retrieved 2026-01-30
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Nimbus Sans

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  • URW pages:
Nimbus Sans Family,
Nimbus Sans Global

Nimbus Sans L

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Nimbus Sans Novus

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