Nice Superfamily

Nice

Clarity × Liveliness × Legibility.

Jan Fromm’s Nice™ is a complex type system with an enormous range of typographic possibilities. The refreshing serif superfamily shines with four perfectly harmonized optical sizes.

Nice is the worst word. — Keira Knightley

Nice is a complex type system with an enormous range of typographic possibilities. Thanks to its four optical sizes, it covers a wide range in terms of design and legibility: from texts in very small sizes to large, expressive billboard grabbing titles. In contrast to many historically oriented serif fonts, it has a fresh look with a slightly nostalgic flair.

Nice has many faces: open, elegant, expressive, compact, robust, but it never looks boring. It is as lively as possible in order to convey messages in a serious and credible way. Its name speaks for itself – friendly in appearance, charming in expression and pleasant in use.

Drawing from its baroque ancestors, it takes only the most important essences: the expressiveness, the contrast between severity and warmth, the playfulness of the italics, the subtle quirkiness. By softening typical decorative elements such as sprawling curves, twisted drops or idiosyncratic serifs and carefully incorporating them into a modern framework, its designer Jan Fromm places its historical formal language in a contemporary context. Many peculiarities of the typefaces of that time compete with today’s reading habits. Therefore, oversized capitals, as in the case of a Baskerville, or the exuberant richness of form of a Fleischmann Italic were consciously avoided.

Nice is therefore not a revival. Instead, the attributes of classical baroque typefaces that still make sense today have been tailored to a refreshingly modern text font. Its availability as a variable font (which is included in the Superfamily package) makes its discreet historical borrowings almost completely unrecognizable.

During the design process, which lasted several years, Jan Fromm was continuously guided by three objectives: clarity, liveliness and legibility. The optical sizes allow a high degree of application-specific optimizations. For example, a generous x-height and open forms allow the small optical sizes of Text and Micro to be read quickly and fluently. The fact that the typeface remains lively despite its efficiency is due to its humanistic characteristics and many details: accentuated vertical serifs (e.g. C, E, T), subtly curved horizontal serifs, strong drops, dots and accents, elements with a handwritten character (Q, &, £), inktraps (in small optical sizes) and different slanted angles in the italics.

Nice Poster – Emphasized horizontal serifs

In contrast to historically oriented text faces, which usually contain oldstyle numerals, Jan Fromm opted for proportional lining figures, as these work better in the large optical sizes of Headline and Poster. Many readers consider oldstyle figures to look too playful in such large and short use cases. In light of the superfamily’s syndetic variability, this decision has also been transferred to Nice Text and Nice Micro. To make lining figures suitable for this purpose, the numerals were made somewhat narrower. This way, they fit perfectly in continuous texts and convince in responsive environments.

Alongside the different types of numerals, the family members Poster, Headline, Text and Micro and the multiple and varied weights (from ExtraLight to Black), Nice is equipped with a rich typographic repertoire of small caps, arrows and symbols. Whether used in editorial design, fashion, branding or packaging – Nice always cuts a fine figure.

The designer himself recommends using Micro for font sizes from about 6 to 9pt, Text from about 9 to 16pt, Headline up to about 48pt and Poster for larger applications. But, of course, that is just a suggestion …

The versatility and expressive nature of Nice will be further expanded with the planned addition of more widths (Condensed and Extended), as well as language extensions such as Cyrillic, Greek and Vietnamese. Corresponding styles such as Sans, Mono and perhaps even Slab, Semi Sans or even Script are also conceivable. After all, these genres also deserve a ‘nice’ clarity, liveliness and legibility.

Nice Superfamily – 4 Optical Sizes, 56 Styles

Nice by Jan Fromm – 4 Optical Sizes, 56 Styles

Nice Type System – 4 optical sizes, 56 styles

#65

Uppercase

Lowercase

Latin Accents

ẞ

Ẃ

Ẅ

Ẁ

Ỳ

ẃ

ẅ

ẁ

ỳ

Numerals & Currency Symbols

€

₿

₺

€

₺

₿

Small Caps

ẁ

ẃ

ẅ

ỳ

Punctuation

;

…

•

‽

⸘

(

)

{

}

[

]

–

—

‒

‐

‑

‚

„

“

”

‘

’

‹

›

‴

⟨

⟩

Mathematical Signs & Symbols

∙

≅

⋅

≙

−

≠

≥

≤

≈

∞

∫

Ω

∆

∏

∑

√

∂

‰

Arrows & Shapes

↑

↗

→

↘

↓

↙

←

↖

●

○

◊

■

□

▲

▼

△

▽

▴

▸

▾

◂

Ligatures

ffi

ffl

Greek

Solomiya

Solomiya № 2

4 People Who Care

Berliner Hochschule für Technik

Jan Fromm

Mastering, Production

Olli Meier

Marketing

Jan Fromm (Copywriting)
Ivo Gabrowitsch (Naming, Copywriting, Specimen)
Anja Knust (Graphic Design, Imagery)
Neo Motion Studio (Animations)
Lucy Beckley (English Translation)

Design Period

2013–2022

Release Date

March 29, 2022

Awards

2023 Communication Arts Award of Excellence

Recommended Use

Advertising & Packaging
Book Text
Editorial & Publishing
Festive Occasions
Fashion
Logo, Branding & CI
Poster & Billboards
Small Text

Formats

static: OTF, WOFF2; variable: TTF, WOFF2
Further formats available on request

Licenses

TRIAL Free Test license
STANDARD Combined Print, Web, App and eBook license
EXTENDED Larger volume + Broadcasting
Further types of license available on request

Modifications & Extensions

Available on request

Variable Fonts

Included in the Superfamily package at no extra cost
2 axes: weight, optical size
Web file size (WOFF2): 135 KB (Upright), 136 KB Web (Italic)

Trademarks

Nice™ is a trademark of Fontwerk GmbH

Download PDF

Clarity × Liveliness × Legibility.

Story

Glyphs

Uppercase

Lowercase

Latin Accents

Numerals & Currency Symbols

Small Caps

Punctuation

Mathematical Signs & Symbols

Arrows & Shapes

Ligatures

Greek

Languages

Solomiya

Solomiya № 2

4 People Who Care

Berliner Hochschule für Technik

Clarity × Liveliness × Legibility.

Families

Story

Glyphs

Uppercase

Lowercase

Latin Accents

Numerals & Currency Symbols

Small Caps

Punctuation

Mathematical Signs & Symbols

Arrows & Shapes

Ligatures

Greek

Languages

Solomiya

Solomiya № 2

4 People Who Care

Berliner Hochschule für Technik

Pairing Suggestions