Technical Standard Font
Pilatus is a modern standard typeface based on the ISO 3098 specification. The standard was developed to ensure high legibility in technical drawings. Pilatus is available as a type family with 14 styles ranging from Thin to Black, as a variable font, or as a version without kerning. The type family includes more than 680 Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic characters and is suitable for all modern applications such as technical labeling, plans, documentation, and interfaces.
Download Pilatus Font
The standard typeface Pilatus is offered in 14 styles on myfonts.com.
Variable Font
Download Pilatus Variable
The variable font can be adjusted continuously from Thin to Black and up to 15° italic.
The standardized typeface is used to achieve uniformity and high legibility in technical drawings. Before computers existed, letters were drawn on paper using stencils or by hand within a strict grid. Because of the rounded tip of the pen, the stroke endings were rounded. Most modern typefaces based on the ISO 3098 standard adopt these rounded forms. The Pilatus typeface offered here, however, features sharp-edged stroke endings and is strictly geometric. It adheres to the grid defined by the ISO 3098 standard.
Download Pilatus ISO
This version of the font, as defined by the standard, always has a spacing of two stroke widths between characters.
The standard typeface was designed to remain highly legible and free of errors, particularly when reduced on film and subsequently enlarged. This is achieved by maximizing the internal spacing within each letter’s strokes. In the 3098 standard, the typeface exists in four variants: Type A and Type B, each in upright and slanted versions. Type B is the preferred variant and specifies an uppercase letter height of 10x, with x representing the stroke width. Type A has a letter height of 14x, which means its letterforms are somewhat narrower. The slanted version is inclined 15° to the right. There is also the CA variant, defined in ISO 3098-5. It is used in CAD applications but is essentially the same typeface. In the standard, the letterforms are defined in greater detail. The spacing between letters is 2x. This works well for adjacent lines, but when, for example, a V is followed by an A or a j by a T, the resulting spacing within a word can appear too wide. The standard leaves this as is, but it leads to unattractive gaps in running text. In the typeface offered here, such issues are corrected through kerning, ensuring that every letter combination produces a visually harmonious result.
