News corner﹕Sweden Sans
【明報專訊】All countries have their national flags, national anthems and national dishes. Some even have their national dances. Some Swedes have got a new idea. They think Sweden (瑞典) should have a national font and that will further the Swedes' cultural identity.
The Swedish national typeface is called "Sweden Sans". It will be used by Swedish government agencies and corporations as the official font. "Aesthetics is very important in Sweden and we have a long tradition of great architecture, furniture and design. So this was the natural next step," said Stefan Hattenbach, who designed the font.
The designer drew inspiration from Sweden national flag and old Swedish signs in the 1940s and 1950s. The result is a basic sans serif font (無襯線字體) with some modern tweaks.
Stefan and his team hoped Sweden Sans would remind people of the Swedish expression "lagom", which means "not too much and not too little". "We Swedes are happy with that. And lagom is what we've aimed at with Sweden Sans."
(Source: Ming Pao, \The Guardian)
■Words
font, typeface 字體
cultural identity 文化身分
tweak 小小的改進
■Quiz
Fill in the blanks by referring to the passage.
(answers on the next text)
The new Swedish national font
Name: (1)_________________
Inspiration from: Sweden (2)___________ and the old Swedish signs
Tweaked from: (3)___________ font
Used by: Swedish government (4)_________ and (5)___________
■Glossary
official (adj) 官方的
aesthetics (n) 美學
architecture (n) 建築
expression (n) 詞組
