It may seem arcane, but typeface nuances govern our reading habits. As Wilson researched through old type specimen books, he discovered that there were two Linotype releases: Metro and, soon after, Metro No. 2, which was more "modern" and "sterile" than Dwiggins's original glyphs. "I believe this [change] was from customer feedback, but I greatly preferred the original Metro," he says.

Wanting the "great old quirks and lively characters," Wilson contacted Dan Rhatigan, Monotype U.K. type director, "about having someone draw up just an all-caps version" that could be used exclusively for his film credits, since he wanted to use only typefaces that were originally designed for the Linotype to help the film's authenticity. Omagari designed an all-caps version in the bolder Metro Black, then he completed a lowercase to match. From there, the idea for a full typeface with additional weights began to materialize as Metro Nova.

But the effort raises the question of why another typeface is necessary. "It is just like new music," Wilson says. "You always think you don't need any new music until you hear that new song that grabs you and expresses your thoughts and ideas perfectly. Then, it is pure magic."

This, too, raises a question: If Metro is so great, why redesign it instead of just porting it to a new medium? The answer may fascinate typography nerds... but all others may want to skip ahead. Allan Haley, director of words and letters at Monotype told me that "Metro was indeed special, but it was originally--at just four weights and three italics--a small family, and was drawn within the requirements of the Linotype typesetters at the time." The family included Metrolight, Metrolight Italic, Metroblack and Metroblack Italic, which shared the same character widths, and Metromedium, Metromedium Italic, and Metrothin, which also shared the same character widths. This is a technical limitation that, Haley explains, resulted in the "italic designs--which are normally slightly condensed and spaced tighter than their roman [or non-italic] counterparts--had to be drawn wider and spaced more open than they should. Also, bold designs were forced to be drawn to more condensed proportions than normal." The characters in the original Metro, therefore, started quite wide in the lightest weight and became progressively more condensed in heavier designs. "Metro Nova, however, is not encumbered by these design restrictions," Haley says. "The various family members were drawn within purely aesthetic considerations."

Omagai says that he tried "to imagine what Dwiggins would have done today."

Metro was first released around the time when the iconic faces Johnston Underground, Gill Sans, and Futura (promoted as the typeface of the future) came out. "The sharp cuts and organic shapes of lowercase letters contributed to the calligraphic feel of the face that was even stronger than Gill, for example, and still seems to remain rare in sans serif," Omagai says about Metro's abundance of stylistic alternates and weights. More type-nerd info: "Each style contains nearly 900 glyphs, and roughly 150 are alternates. I am particularly proud that Metro Nova is the first typeface that has alternate Icelandic 'ð'. While it may not be important to many, I hope Icelandic designers will rejoice."