Like Eric Gill's 1927–30 design Gill Sans and Hans Eduard Meier's typeface Syntax, both upper and lower case are structurally modeled on serif old style faces.

FF Scala Sans is a very complete sans-serif in its inclusion of true small capitals, lining and non-lining (old style figures) and many ligatures.

The Los Angeles Metro and the Hungarian weekly magazine Magyar Narancs prominently use the typeface.

FF Scala Sans is less commonly used by Kwik Trip, most notably some of its signage.

It is also used by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, as well as the fifteenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style, JBL Sound Systems, The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, the Saint Louis Art Museum, Shakespeare's Words: A Glossary and Language Companion by David Crystal, and Martin Majoor's official website.