Fonts and typography guide
"Gendern"
A "gender-neutral" administrative language is important to the city administration of Mainz. Since 2022, the following has therefore applied:
- First choice: gender-neutral terms (e.g., participle forms, if they sound good)
- A colon is used when the addressees or the persons being written about cannot be defined more precisely.
- Texts that are explicitly addressed to women (and/or men) are written in the grammatically correct form or according to the Arche Noah principle, e.g., Dear colleagues or Dear female colleagues, dear male colleagues.
- When addressing a group of people that cannot be defined in more detail, the female and male forms should be used, as well as the colon variant, if there is no gender-neutral term. (Example: Dear organizers, female organizers, and male organizers).
Further information on the topic of "gender-neutral administrative language" can be found in the brochure of the same name published by the Women's Office.
Writings
The house font - Meta
The sans serif font Meta, designed by Erik Spiekermann in 1985, was chosen for printed publications. It is used in four different sizes. Meta is used on letterheads, business cards, forms and reports, invitation and greeting cards, brochures, leaflets and posters, etc. However, Meta is not used as a correspondence font.
The correspondence script - Garamond
Garamond, a French Renaissance antiqua font, is used in all correspondence and communications from the city administration. It stands out clearly from the corporate font Meta, making current, personal communications easily distinguishable for the recipient. The body text is set in Garamond Regular and emphasis is set in Garamond Bold, both in 12 point.
The font for reports, documentation and leaflets - Calibri
Since 2023, we have been using the Calibri font for these documents. For such publications, we often only create the cover page and back page in CD format; you create the inside pages yourself. Calibri is also used for agendas in Session.
The Internet font - Fira Sans
The Fira font guarantees good readability on screen and accessible design on the internet. Fira Sans is based on the corporate font of the state capital Mainz. It was developed by Erik Spiekermann and Ralph du Carrois.