B612
Font family

The genesis of B612

In 2010, Airbus initiated a research collaboration with ENAC and Université de Toulouse III on a prospective study to define and validate an “Aeronautical Font”: the challenge was to improve the display of information on the cockpit screens, in particular in terms of legibility and comfort of reading, and to optimize the overall homogeneity of the cockpit.

2 years later, Airbus came to find Intactile DESIGN to work on the design of the eight typographic variants of the font. This one, baptized B612 in reference to the imaginary asteroid of the aviator Saint‑Exupéry, benefited from a complete hinting on all the characters.

License

In 2017, Airbus agreed to publish the font with an open source license (Eclipse Public License) within the Polarsys project, an industry oriented project hosted by the Eclipse foundation.

In December 2018, B612 has been published on Google Fonts with an open source license (OFL) and the source has been put on Github.

Authors

B612 is the result of a research project initiated by Airbus. The font was designed by Nicolas Chauveau, Thomas Paillot and Jonathan Favre-Lamarine (intactile DESIGN) with the support of Jean‑Luc Vinot (ENAC). Prior research by Jean‑Luc Vinot (DGAC/DSNA) and Sylvie Athènes (Université de Toulouse III).