Sūbo (スーボ) is a Japanese rounded typeface by
Shaken. Its main
characteristic are the overlapping strokes in most characters. It
was submitted by Tsutomu Suzuki, then a Shaken employee, to the
2nd Ishii Award Creative Typeface Contest held in 1972 in which it
placed 1st. It was further developed from the original requirements
for the contest. The name is a portmanteau of “Suzuki” and
“bold”.
Two different variants were released in 1974 as Sūbo
BSU and B BSU-B. In 1976, outline variants were
released for the two solid variants as Sūbo O OSU and
OB OSU-B. Outlined shadow variants followed in 1984 as
Sūbo OS OSSU and OSB OSSU-B.
In 1977, Shaken made variants for titling use More…
Sūbo (スーボ) is a Japanese rounded typeface by Shaken. Its main characteristic are the overlapping strokes in most characters. It was submitted by Tsutomu Suzuki, then a Shaken employee, to the 2nd Ishii Award Creative Typeface Contest held in 1972 in which it placed 1st. It was further developed from the original requirements for the contest. The name is a portmanteau of “Suzuki” and “bold”.
Two different variants were released in 1974 as Sūbo BSU and B BSU-B. In 1976, outline variants were released for the two solid variants as Sūbo O OSU and OB OSU-B. Outlined shadow variants followed in 1984 as Sūbo OS OSSU and OSB OSSU-B.
In 1977, Shaken made variants for titling use named Sūbo OS TT-07 and Sūbo Pairline TT-08.
As of 2024, Morisawa will be releasing a digital version of Sūbo that will include a B (bold) weight based on the original Sūbo BSU from 1974.