Vtg Stencil DIN

Most used Stencil Type in Germany

The Vtg Stencil DIN fonts were developed to make the most common German stencil type available as digital font. The font design is based on DIN 1451, the standard German typeface from the 1930s. Because of its technical precision, it is considered the archetype of an industrial typeface. Of course, there are several slightly different stencil designs from different manufacturers and eras in circulation, but they all share the typical design of the DIN type.

DIN stands for "Deutsche Industrienorm" (German Industry Standard) and the DIN types have a long history. The core design was developed for the marking of wagons of the Prussian State Railways (1906). But the design became increasingly popular and in 1936 it was published as DIN1451 - a standard for the design of type. It was used for traffic signs, street signs, house numbers, the army and much more. Over the years the design has changed a little and been slightly modernised.

Vtg Stencil DIN comes in many styles – Regular, Alt, Fabric, Halftone and Rough.

Vtg Stencil Din - Regular is part of the official German standard DIN 1451-1:2018-12 as a reference for stencil fonts designed according to DIN 1451-2.

The Alt style features older designs of letter "a" and numbers "6" and "9". These alternate version is still used today by the Deutsche Bahn (German Railways) for technical markings.

In Germany these stencil letters are also called Signierschrift, Signierschablonen, Schablonierschrift, Schablonenschrift, Malerschablonen.

The Creative Styles

Sometimes the austere, sober nature of DIN fonts needs a little fun. For this purpose, there are the «creative»" font styles that are not meant to be taken too seriously. ;-)

Fabric, Halftone and Rough styles have an eroded, weathered look using up to four glyph variations of each letter. For an random effect an glyph rotator is programmed into the fonts opentypecode and applied by typing in opentype-savvy application.

Have fun and/or take it seriously.