astype fonts is run by Andreas Seidel, currently based in Berlin and near Wolfsburg. I have developed many vintage, display and stencil fonts. My custom work is mainly done for the game software industry.

One of my most popular fonts is Sveva. It's often used for fairy tale and fantasy book covers. For her 20th birthday, I hope to come up with new revised styles and additional weights.

You can license most of my fonts directly here. The sale and download is done through my sale service provider Gumroad.com. This is the best way to support my work as 93% of your money goes to me. — I appreciate your support.

2021-10 | DIN Schablonenschrift A — the abandoned stencil type of DIN 1451

Lettering by Numbers or Hail to the Shape and Grid

Composing letters from repeating elements is a recurring technique. Josef Albers, a Bauhaus teacher chose a radical approach in the mid 1920s. He used the shapes circle, rectangle and triangle for construction of new alphabet letters. [Schablonenschrift and later Kombinationschrift, 1929] His contemporaries Joost Schmidt and Herbert Bayer took a very similar approach. This technique also inspired Jan Tschichold and Paul Renner to create their simplistic stencil alphabets. Paul Renners Futura Black from 1929 is the most kown and commercially successful example.

The approach of being able to create letters apparently quite easily must have impressed the members of Deutsche Normenausschuss (today German Institute for Standardisation [Deutsches Institut für Normung, DIN]). At least from 1943 on, a stencil design called «Schablonenschrift A» (Stencil Type A) and the specimen and its building template was added to the DIN 1451 standard. Today, this type is no longer part of the DIN standard. It was probably removed at the end of the 1970s.


Easy 7x7 Grid

The grid is based on a square that is divided seven times from both sides. But the design also uses half grid squares. The stem weight is 1.5 units. In some places like the number 3 even quarter grid squares. The seven divisions are sufficient for quick orientation, but there are actually 28 units - no problem if you work on graph paper.

Those responsible were well aware of the limited legibility of this stencil type. Therefore, it was pointed out that the type 1. should only be used for lettering without the highest demands on legibility and 2. single letters and the arrangement of capital letters only should be avoided. This can be seen on page 6 of the 1943 version of DIN 1451 standard. In the 1950s, this information was expanded and precised: «The Stencil Type A is intended for simple lettering without great demands on legibility, made with oilboard or brass. It applies to single words and short command sentences; it should not be applied to single letters and to the arrangement of multiple capital letters. The letter bars should not be painted over.»


Schablonenschrift A (Stencil Type A) was rarely used

Despite its inclusion into the DIN standard, you will hardly find documented applications of this stencil type. This does not mean that there were no usages, but they may have been rather rare. If you find some samples it might look a little different. There were usually the much better legible standard DIN types (Normschrift), which were also available in very good quality as brass and zinc stencil sets. Also, the profession of sign painting was very common in those days, and so on historical photos on military equipment one tends to see hand-painted letters corresponding to common DIN type.

If you know or have documents about application examples of Stencil Type A, I will be glad if you inform me about them.

sources:

• Page 5, DIN 1451, Oktober 1943
• DIN Taschenbuch 2, Zeichnungsnormen, August 1950

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New Font Release: Vtg Stencil DIN Type A

Although there is little evidence of frequent use of this type design, it belongs to the group of German stencil types. That is why I have included it in my stencil font library.

The Basic font style is very close to the old DIN specification which should please all historically interested modelers. And the best thing - You can use it for free! It have a limited letter set but should work for most applications. Please do not redistribute it — the astype EULA remains but the font is free for commercial and non-commercial use.

The commercial font style Regular I have adapted to my taste and to the typographic demands of today. It features a Latin Extended character set as well Cyrillic letters, slightly changed letter proportions, some more legible letters, better spacing and some letter alternates. Its no longer in full line to the old DIN 1451 specs.

Enjoy the fonts and do some great stuff!

Andreas Seidel