Typography plays an important role in Iowa State’s visual identity. Because our graphic communications reach many overlapping audiences, it is important that the university’s image is reflected clearly and consistently in all situations.

For print, two type families form the foundation of our graphic identity: ITC Berkeley Old Style and Univers. These two type families, highly versatile and highly legible, are compatible with each other as well as with our wordmark.

While Berkeley and Univers work well in print communications, due to technical limitations on the web, we suggest limiting their use to large size copy such as titles or headlines and in the form of an image graphic. Web-friendly type fonts that share some of the same characteristics of Berkeley and Univers have been carefully chosen for web use.

The digital font replacements are Nimbus Sans (for Univers) and Merriweather (for Berkeley). These fonts can be viewed on most browsers. Merriweather can be utilized by designers and developers through Google Fonts. Nimbus Sans can be utilized through Adobe Fonts. The university has also purchased a license for digital use. There is a CSS file available to load and apply the fonts. For additional information about the university’s use of Nibmus Sans, visit here.

Nimbus Sans Family

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Merriweather Family

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