Metro家族是美国平面设计师William Addison Dwiggins（简称W.A.D.）从1927年开始设计的第一个字体。该项目是源于Dwiggins对当今新的欧洲无衬线字体（如Futura，Erbar和Kabel）的不满，他曾在他开创性的书籍《Layout in Advertising》中表达过这种感觉。在Mergenthaler Linotype的敦促下，Dwiggins提出了解决该问题的解决方案，并开始了长达数十年的专业合作关系。

发布的第一个Metro家族字体是Metroblack，由Linotype于1929年推向市场。（Metroblack＃2™是Mergenthaler Linotype最终投入生产的两个版本中的唯一一个有数字形式的）。在欧洲，当时的人文主义特征要比几何风格更为流行，Dwiggins描绘出了他认为是适用于标题和广告文案最理想的无衬线样式。 Metroblack的特征比现代主义更温暖，且字体都是矫饰的曲线以及有尖角的末端（Metroblack的字母Q特别漂亮）。

Metro家族的其他字重，Metromedium＃2™和Metrolite＃2™，是在Dwiggins的监督下由Mergenthaler Linotype的设计工作室完成的。

尽管诞生于四分之三个世纪以前，Metro家族字体已经很老了，仍然是一个受欢迎的无衬线家族。

尽管与Futura这样的畅销字体相比，Metro的使用频率更低了，但它仍有许多不同的用途。几十年来，该字体一直出现在欧洲和北美的报纸和杂志上，当用于徽标和企业标识时，甚至有助于创建出色的品牌形象。 Dwiggins是20世纪最具影响力的平面设计师和字体设计师之一。他在Linotype Originals中还有其他几种优质的字体，包括衬线文本字体Electra™和New Caledonia™，以及Caravan™（一种排印装饰字体）。”

American graphic designer William Addison Dwiggins' (W.A.D. for short) first typefaces were the Metro family, designed from 1927 onward. The project grew out of Dwiggins' dissatisfaction with the new European sans serif typefaces of the day, such as Futura, Erbar, and Kabel, a feeling he expressed in his seminal book Layout in Advertising. Urged by Mergenthaler Linotype to create a solution for the problem, Dwiggins began a professional relationship that would span over the next few decades.

The first Metro family typeface to be released was Metroblack, brought to market by Linotype in 1929 (Metroblack #2™ the only one of the two versions that Mergenthaler Linotype eventually put into production which is available in digital form). With more of a humanist quality than the geometric styles popular in Europe at the time, Dwiggins drew what he believed to be the ideal sans serif for headlines and advertising copy. Metroblack has a warmer character than the Modernists' achievements, and the type is full of mannered curves and angled terminals (Metroblack also has an astoundingly beautiful Q).

The weights of the Metro family, Metromedium #2™ and Metrolite #2™, were each designed by Mergenthaler Linotype's design office under Dwiggins' supervision.

In 2012 Toshi Omagari reworked the Metro family as "Metro Nova" with many weights into a modern type family that even contains the alternate characters from the origin Metro family from Dwiggins.

Despite having been created more than three-quarters of a century ago, the Metro family types have aged well, and remain a popular sans serif family. Although spec'd less often than other bestsellers, like Futura, Metro continues to find many diverse uses. The typeface has appeared throughout Europe and the North America for decades in newspapers and magazines, and can even help create a great brand image when used in logos and corporate identity.

Dwiggins ranks among the most influential graphic designers and typeface designers of the 20th Century. He has several other quality fonts in the Linotype portfolio, including the serif text faces Electra™ and New Caledonia™, as well as Caravan™, a font of typographic ornaments.