# Free Univers Font?



## Pamela

I need the Univers font for a project for school by Thursday and I'm just wondering if anyone has come across a free version of it?

I know some fonts are shareware while others are pay for download.

If there is no free version of Univers, does anyone know of a free downloadable version that is very similar to it?

Thanks


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## Chealion

Search Result I gave was invalid, searching more.


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## Pamela

Thanks!


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## Chealion

The first result I found required a password and username to download, so it was no go.

However after some more deep searching, I found a site that details how to use several fonts in Russian and a font called Univers happens to be one. You can download it and of the 16 fonts that come in the zipped up folder, you can use FontBook to see which one is the right one.

Font Download Link 

Best of luck Pamela, getting the font from Fonts.com costs over $100, and who knew this page from 1996 would be around 7 years later?


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## Pamela

You freaking rock Chealion. I've been searching for an hour and have found nothing! What's your secret?!

But unfortunately that isn't *the* Univers  

Thanks anyway.


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## Chealion

I was really hoping that was it since the only other leads I was able to discern from the Czech forums that listed it were that it came with Corel 8/9 (or the people needed it for that program).

However, did you have that font on your PC? As if you have it (or find someone with that font) you can just copy it onto your Mac and it will work







Best of luck Pamela.


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## Pamela

Yeah I had it on my PC but now I can't find the disk that had it  

Thanks for your help Chealion


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## JAMG

Free fonts are usually only worth the price you paid for them...

However there are some good people making good fonts and distributing them for free... but they are a minority...

Now for a school project, if an exact match is not available or affordable... consider Arial...

Most people think Arail and Helvetica are the same font, but Arial is closer to Univers

The major obvious differences take place in the Upper case Q and lower Case y, but the rest of the font is identicle to the casual observer...

Good luck

and check out www.what thefont.com - a great resouce for finding matching fonts, especially if all you have is a photocopy. Scan as a grayscale tiff, upload and it will guess the font for you.


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## Nick

Hello Pamela,

You can subsitute Helvetica for Univers. I am a graphic designer and I can tell you that no one will notice the difference. Univers is a PC font, I think it comes with Windows 2000 and up.

Univers started in the mid 50's when Adrian Frutiger was trying to standardize they way fonts work.
ie. he was trying to add the 35, 45, 55 ... extentions to the font. Were the first number gives stroke and the second number would be style.

example: Univers 55 = Univers Medium. The concept never really caught on a large scale, but univers is 'his' version of helvetica.

So all you have to do is use helvetica and no one will ever know.

This biggest thing is just matching he right versions up, like Helvetica Medium to Univers 55

[ November 26, 2003, 11:16 AM: Message edited by: Nick ]


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## Pamela

I think I just realized that I actually need Univers Condensed. I was going through the fonts and arial narrow seemed to look very similar to what I was trying to find.

Thanks for the tips on the font matching!


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## RubberGorilla

No offense here, but does no one else see this as being wrong? You're a student, that's great but it doesn't mean you can steal fonts.

If you find a free font of Univers it is either a)someone allowing a download outside of the font's license or b) a poor illegal reproduction of the font.

One of my best friends works for a font foundry in the US and has definately helped me see why this is stealing. I used to make free fonts for download in the mid 90's when I was in school, but they were all original works.

To me this is no different than someone using these discussion boards to ask for cracked software.


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## ehMax

RubberGorilla, I don't think Pamela is looking to pirate any fonts. It's like asking if there is any freeware version of utility program if there isn't one, is there something similar. 
She is specifically looking for a free version, not a copyrighted version. There are legal, free versions of fonts out there.


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## RubberGorilla

Well, I guess we disagree then.

If someone asks for a free version of a copyrighted font that's OK? The request was probably innocent enough, but what if people start requesting fonts and use ehMac as a springboard to font-swap?

Here is Adobe's page for Univers STD Condensed. It is $149 dollars US, there is no free version.

I really think it's dangerous to allow people to post font requests on this board. I just don't want to see this community become a haven for font-swapping. It is no different than if people started asking for a crack to Photoshop.

Apple graciously gives away over $10,000 worth of fonts with OS X. The people who make original fonts work hard crafting their typefaces. 

I invite anyone interested to take a look at the TypeRight site. It's an organization dedicated to protecting the rights of font designers.

Here is a press statement about the conclusion of Adobe suing one of those "1000 Fonts" CD-ROM creators. They had basically stolen Adobe fonts and put them on those $20 CD's that you see in some stores. I'm sure most of the people buying those disks probably thought they were buying legal fonts, but they weren't.

Please stop this now, please don't let ehMac become another site where people can pirate fonts.


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## RubberGorilla

Anyway, I don't want to seem too alarmist, I just want to stop this trend before it starts.

By no means am I saying that Pamela was trying to steal fonts. She just needs to know that the font she wants is $149 US and that any "free" version of it is probably an illegal copy. I'm glad to hear that Pamela found an alternative. Thanks go out to Apple for providing Arial Narrow for free.


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## Pamela

Sorry RubberGorilla. But you were jumping the gun and totally out of line accusing me of wanting to "steal"/"find" the univers font.

Ehmax had it exactly right.

How come you were the only one to post that didn't see what I was asking?


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## ehMax

*Well, I guess we disagree then.

If someone asks for a free version of a copyrighted font that's OK?* 

You're not reading or understanding what Pamela wrote. Read again carefully:

*If there is no free version of Univers, does anyone know of a free downloadable version that is very similar to it?* 

It's not hard to understand. If she had asked, "Can someone give me a copy of Univers" or "Where can I download Univers", that would be innapropriate. She asked if there was such a thing as a free version *AND IF NOT*, was there a free version that is similar. 

Then people proceeded to recommend alternatives that come with the system like Arial or Helvetica. I totally fail to see where you think anyone is doing something wrong. 

Pamela has dumped many, many thousands of dollars on Mac equipment and software and I'd wager she would have no problem buying a font if that was her only alternative. THERE ARE 100% legal, free or included alternatives that people are suggesting. 

Chose your battles wisely. You're barking up the wrong tree thinking Pamela is looking for something free that's not. 

ehMac will NEVER be a springboard for illegal activity so don't worry.


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## RubberGorilla

I am happy to hear that ehMac will not become a springboard for illegal activity.

The problem I had wasn't with the initial post, it was with the initial post, plus this response by Pamela to chealion when he provided a link to a free alternative:

_But unfortunately that isn't *the* Univers _

She was looking for a free Univers, a free alternative wasn't found and she lamented that it wasn't "the" Univers.

To me, that sounds like she wanted the $149 real font, but didn't want to pay for it.

ehMax's assurances that he won't let illegal font-swapping happen and Pamela's assurance that this was a misunderstanding is good enough for me. Hopefully if just one person reads and understands that <A HREF="http://www.typeright.org>TypeRight</A> site I posted this will not have been a waste of anybody's time.

Thanks all.


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## JAMG

Not to mention that Univers is one of Adobes most common Mac Type 1 fonts. and although I don't know this for a fact, I think it was bundled with either llustrator or Photoshop at one time.

I would have to check my old install CDs and Floppies.
ehmac members are usually highly critical of users looking to circumvent copyrights.

Font piracy... any software piracy hurts all of us...
and causes software makers to charge its honest customers more than the software is sometimes worth...


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## PosterBoy

What RubberGorilla is saying is true, UNivers is not free, so while you may find it somewhere you will be in violation of the licensing agreement.

What could have been said instead though, was, you'll be out of luck with Univers (unless you are willing to part with 149$ US) as there is no free version. See previous posts for recommendations of free substitutes.

--PB


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## RubberGorilla

Yah, by no means did I intend to say that Pamela was a theif or was attempting theft (even if that is what I did say).

What my intent in making those comments was to educate people about font theft. A lot of people steal fonts without even knowing it's theft. That is why I brought up the TypeRight site.

I apologize to Pamela for making it sound like I was calling her a theif. I simply didn't mean it that way and hope she forgives me for my mistake.


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## Pamela

all understood.

all forgiven.

all finished.


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## Gerbill

Just for further information, there are lots of very similar fonts. Here are a few - I have all of them except Univers, having legally acquired them as extras included with Adobe apps and Mac systems. While the differences are obvious when they are together in one place, I think that you could substitute any of them for any other without ringing alarm bells with anybody but real font geeks.

Notice also that Adobe sells these faces individually, so there is no need to buy the entire font just to get a single face.


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## will1982

*test*

Hello everyone, the year I am posting this is 2012!  But I would like to say that these fonts provided still work on my MBA 2011 with 10.7

Thanks,
~Will1982


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