The design idea for this condensed sans serif stencil font was inspired by a post-World War II brass stencil spotted in an online auction. The United States was assisting Europe with much-needed goods, and the text in the middle of a “stars and stripes” shield used for marking the shipping containers read “For European Recovery supplied by the United States of America”. It was the first line (“For European Recovery”) that became the working model for Supplier Stencil JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

I set out to design a contemporary font that is condensed with thick and thin strokes. The highly structured forms of this condensed font was made more interesting and softer by giving it a slightly calligraphic tone and by adding round corners. Atto's express purpose is to be both utilitarian, compact and technical but with a friendly face. The name "atto" was adopted since it refers to the measurement of "smallness" or detail. You will no doubt discover all the many pleasant nuances within Atto. Adopted in 1964, "atto" comes from the Danish "atten", meaning eighteen. Atto - (symbol a) a SI prefix to an unit and means that it is 10 to the power- 18 times this unit. Examples are one attosecond or one attometer/attometre. Atto is available in for Mac and Windows in Postscript, Truetype and Opentype.