9

What font is used for "Mathematica" in our logo?

Mathematica.SE logo Mathematica.SE logo cropped

I thought it might be the italic of the default Mathematica font (Utopia)—

enter image description here

—and while it looks similar, the logo font has angled vertical strokes on M, a serif at the top of c, a wider hook at the bottom of t, and a thicker horizontal stroke weight.

I tried some online font identification tools but they didn't work.

What about the Wolfram Mathematica logo?

Wolfram Mathematica logo screenshot

It seems to use a third font.

1 Answer 1

8

Jin mentioned in chat during the design phase that the font used in mma.se's logo is Vollkorn, with a custom kerning.

Currently, and since about Mathematica version 6/7, the main Wolfram Mathematica logo is set in Minion Pro Regular/Italic. Before then, a number of different fonts were used, including Palatino, some kind of all-capitals Garamond, Meridien, and, going back to version 1 (1989), Times Italic. To see some of the earlier versions of Mathematica's branding, visit the Wolfram Scrapbook.

In the following picture, first is the OP's original scan, followed by a redrawing showing what Palatino would look like. Then there's this site's font, Vollkorn. And finally, a redrawing using Minion Pro. The Palatino Italic is a bit more like handwriting.

the fontz

4
  • The original Wolfram logo seems to have a more condensed kerning due to the (R). Commented Nov 17, 2012 at 8:54
  • Yes, I can't do kerning... :) Perhaps that's a job for a Manipulate one day! Commented Nov 17, 2012 at 9:46
  • I added info on our logo's font into your answer and deleted mine, since you have visual examples. Commented Nov 17, 2012 at 22:56
  • @rm-rf Good idea. I owe you a point... :) Commented Nov 18, 2012 at 14:34

You must log in to answer this question.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.