Antique Olive was designed by Roger Excoffon for the French typefoundry, Olive, which it issued in different weights and widths from 1962 to 1966. In France, “antique” is the generic term for sans serif designs. Antique Olive was initially designed to rival the popular sans serifs Helvetica and Univers, but is almost humanistic in its design approach, with no indication of a mechanical look. Although the x-height is large and the ascenders and descenders are short, the design maintains an elegant, statuesque quality. Antique Olive is a distinctive typeface that can be used in a variety of ways, from text work to display.