Standards Manual

Standards Manual is an independent publishing imprint founded by designers Jesse Reed and Hamish Smyth in New York City in 2014.

The website and some of the publications feature the monospaced Pitch by Klim Type Foundry as well as Standards Manual’s own NYCTA Standard typeface. The latter was drawn by Nick Sherman, derived from the typeface originally used for the New York City public transit system, Standard Medium (known as Akzidenz-Grotesk halbfett in Germany).

From the digital type specimen:

The NYCTA Standard typeface is based specifically on the glyph designs and spacing system shown in the 1970 New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual. Digital versions of the Standard typeface (or Akzidenz Grotesk, as it was also historically known) existed previously, but the digital NYCTA Standard font focuses on the design as it was rationalized and presented by Unimark International for implementation in the NYCTA’s signage system. The new font began as a literal digitization experiment in February 2013, based on images of the Manual provided by Jesse Reed and Hamish Smyth. Despite various eccentricities in some letter­forms and their spacing, the digitization remains very faithful to what was presented in the original Manual.