UCLA’s brand fonts are sans-serif type styles: We use Karbon for print and embedding on images and Helvetica/Arial/Roboto for digital applications. These fonts are clean, modern and timeless. They help to visually convey the brand pillars and personality traits of UCLA.
Karbon is a distinctive geometric font, available in seven weights from hairline through bold. UCLA commissioned three additional custom versions: thin reveal, bold outline, and bold open outline.
Karbon is the primary font for printed materials orembedding within images online. It is required for all major marketing materials and recommended for other print pieces. On websites, Karbon can be used to create graphics but not as the primary font of the site without an annual financial impact to the department.
The custom fonts must be used sparingly and thoughtfully. Because of accessibility concerns, thin reveal should never be used online. Outline fonts can be used online only if the size is large enough to provide sufficient legibility.
Karbon fonts can be purchased commercially. UCLA Strategic Communications, Brand Marketing department provides a limited number of font licenses to qualified departmental users for use on print materials. Request them through the UCLA Image Library. Please note, UCLA does not buy fonts for vendors or freelancers. If a department wishes to use the Karbon webfont, they would need to make the purchasing agreement with the font house, pay the licensing fee, install and maintain the font going forward. There is no central fund for font web licensing.
In print, designers have the tools to fine-tune spacing between letters, words, and lines of type. Take advantage of that control — but use it to make the content appealing, not to crowd in more words.
Helvetica is a standard font on Apple computers. On the PC platform, Arial is the preferred equivalent. For Android OS, Roboto is the preferred equivalent. These fonts were designed to be visually neutral, so they have fewer quirks than Karbon. These are better for web use, where the approach to typesetting needs to be kept simple.
Helvetica/Arial is the primary embedded font for online work. The stack is as follows:
Helvetica/Arial/Roboto in that order. This stack is required for all UCLA-branded websites.
A special branded version of Helvetica is used only for the department logo system.
In print, designers have the tools to fine-tune spacing between letters, words, and lines of type. Take advantage of that control — but use it to make the content appealing, not to crowd in more words.
