In 1955 the Czech State Department of Culture, which was then in charge of all the publishing houses, organised a competition amongst printing houses and generally all book businesses for the design a newspaper typeface. The motivation for this contest was obvious: the situation in the printing presses was appalling, with very little quality fonts existing and financial resources being too scarce to permit the purchase of type abroad. The conditions to be met by the typeface were strictly defined, and far more constrained than the ones applied to regular typefaces designed for typesetting books. A number of parameters needed to be considered, including the pressure of the printing presses and the quality of the thin newspaper ink that would have smothered any delicate strokes.

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Corzinair is a clear, contemporary typeface family which includes regular, bold and italic.

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Museo Sans is based on the well-known Museo.

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The name Corpid derives from “Corporate Identity” - which is what this family of low-contrast sans-serifs was made for. Corpid was originally commissioned by Studio Dumbar in the Netherlands as a corporate typeface for the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fishing. The font was designed to replace the existing standard typeface (a well-known business-like sans-serif) to provide the organization with a unique and strong identity.

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Helvetica grew in popularity throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and more versions of the family were introduced. This led to vast confusion: the same weight is often referred to by two different names, design features often vary from one face to another, and so on.

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Originally released in 1987, Charter incorporates three important features: compact set width to give economical copyfit; generous x-height to give readability at small point sizes; and sturdy open letterforms to give reliable reproduction at both typesetter and laser printer resolutions. The design brings a clarity and freshness to everyday documents, such as newsletters, textbooks, directories and technical manuals, where the reader’s concentration must not be interrupted by unfamiliar letterforms but where typographic dullness can itself impair comprehension. The Italic has cursive letterforms - so is instantly distinguishable, while being readable enough in its own right for continuous text.

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ITC Officina Serif is definitely a typeface for the 1990s, made for the contemporary office.

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The original designs were drawn by C.W. Pischiner for the Stempel foundry in 1928; this book version was added by the Linotype Corporation in 1959. Neuzeit S is a geometric-grotesque hybrid design, unusual in that round shapes are wide and circular, while other characters appear slightly condensed. Also note the unusual J: this particular letter’s design is versal in origin. The name translates from German as “new times.” Neuzeit S is useful for short texts, while its heavier weight supplies enough contrast for display work and headings.

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Iowan Old Style was designed for Bitstream in 1990 by noted sign painter John Downer. Iowan Old Style is a hardy contemporary text design modeled after earlier revivals of Jenson and Griffo typefaces but with a larger x-height, tighter letterfit, and reproportioned capitals.

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Bitstream’s Oranda was designed by the noted Dutch designer Gerard Unger as a custom project for the European printer manufacturer, Océ, in 1986.

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Helvetica is one of the most popular typefaces of all time. It was designed by Max Miedinger in 1957 for the Haas foundry of Switzerland (the name is derived from Helvetia, the Latin name for Switzerland).

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As a student in Zurich, Adrian Frutiger began work on Univers, which would eventually be released in 1957 by the Deberny & Peignot foundry in Paris. The design is a neo-grotesque, similar to its contemporary, Helvetica.

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Phoenica offers a high quality alternative to contemporary humanist sans serifs. It is a flexible family for editorials and corporate branding.

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Houschka has the humanist qualities reminiscent of Gill and Johnston but is quite unique. It is more monolinear with rounded corners giving it a softer appearance, and has a few interesting character quirks like the capitals A, G, Q, W and lower case u and w.

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To best extend the range of the ITC Officina family, Erik Spiekermann and his team at MetaDesign added a sans serif companion face in two weights.

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Bitstream Charter, was designed in the mid-1980s by Matthew Carter. The typeface was designed with the limitations of low- and middle-resolution output devices in mind; hence the squared off serifs and lack of excessive diagonals and curves. The design, however, became an instant success on its own merits. It is an excellent everyday typeface for a wide variety of uses including books and technical manuals. Charter offers small cap, extension and alternate typographer sets that help to make it more versatile and functional.

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Secca is a fine and simple typeface honoring the roots of early German grotesque type designs but mastered for the needs of today.

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In Cooke’s ongoing quest for simplicity and elegance he developed this striking alternative sans family.

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A descendant of the types of Claude Garamond, Sabon was designed by Jan Tschichold in 1964 and jointly released by Stempel, Linotype, and Monotype foundries. The roman design is based on a Garamond specimen printed by Konrad F. Berner, who was married to the widow of another printer, Jacques Sabon. The italic design is based on types by Robert Granjon, a contemporary of Garamond’s.

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Condé Nast commissioned the FB version of this popular oldstyle for Traveler magazine.

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These 3 weights were developed as the corporate typefaces for a design company in 1997. The starting point was the word ‘accent’ in lower case. It is essentially a sans typeface with the thick/thin contrast of a serif and is the only family in the G-Type collection that was designed for a client.

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Serifa was designed by Adrian Frutiger for the Bauer foundry in 1967. The letterforms are based on those of Frutiger’s earlier sans serif design, Univers. Square, unbracketed serifs have been added, making this a slab serif (or Egyptian) typeface.

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Auto is a sans serif typeface which has three different models of italics, each with its own flavour.

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Auto is a sans serif typeface which has three different models of italics, each with its own flavour.

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Scotch Modern is a revival of the typeface used in the book New York State Cabinet of Natural History.

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In 1931, The Times of London commissioned the Monotype Corporation, under the direction of Stanley Morison, to design a newspaper typeface. According to Morison: “The Times, as a newspaper in a class by itself, needed not a general trade type, however good, but a face whose strength of line, firmness of contour, and economy of space fulfilled the specific editorial needs of The Times.” Times New Roman, drawn by Victor Lardent and initially released in 1932, is the result.

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Tribute is a new typeface by German type designer Frank Heine. This is Heine’s fourth release with Emigre Fonts. Remedy, released in 1991, was a major commercial success. It’s curlicue, free-style, comic appearance, provided a perfect counter to Emigre’s then primarily modular type designs. Dalliance, a classic roman and script combo based on handwriting from a photocopy of a 1799 battle map, was released in 2002 and became an instant classic.

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Giambattista Bodoni of Parma, Italy, designed and cut his typefaces at the end of the eighteenth century. The Bodoni types were the culmination of nearly 300 years of evolution in roman type design, in which fine hairlines contrast sharply with bolder stems, and serifs are often unbracketed. Bodoni is recognized by its high contrast between thick and thin strokes, pure vertical stress, and hairline serifs. This particular version of Bodoni was first created by Morris Fuller Benton for American Type Founders between 1908 and 1915. It brings elegance and sparkle to any graphic image, including headlines, text, and logos.

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Designed by R.H. Middleton for Ludlow, circa 1929-30. Digitally engineered by Steve Jackaman.

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Morris Fuller Benton started the Bodoni revival with this version for ATF in the early years of the 20th century. We consider it the first accurate revival of a historical face for general use. Sturdy and a little mechanical in the 19th century tradition, this is the Bodoni series familiar to us all.

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Designed in 1955 by Howard G. Kettler for the IBM bar typewriter and later adapted for the Selectric typewriter, Courier? has truly stood the test of time. Installed on nearly every computer in the world, Courier? is also one of the most used typefaces in history. The 12 pitch mono Kettler type family pays tribute to the simplicity of Howard Kettler¹s monospaced classic by revisiting the smooth letter fit and efficiency of form.

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Based on the Ludlow/ATF versions of this great typeface.

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This series of faces was designed initially by Morris Fuller Benton, circa 1900.

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Preface vs. Helvetica/Futura/Gill: a different strategy of text color.

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The distinguishing characteristics of the serif Clearface family—the slight serifs atop A, and at the stroke ends of V and W; the curves of k and y; the slanted bar of e; and the open 4—are apparent in its companion, Clearface Gothic. Both were designed by Morris Fuller Benton for American Type Founders and released between the years 1907 and 1910. Clearface Gothic is also a legibility typeface and, therefore, is most distinguished when used for text.

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Tribute is a new typeface by German type designer Frank Heine. This is Heine’s fourth release with Emigre Fonts. Remedy, released in 1991, was a major commercial success. It’s curlicue, free-style, comic appearance, provided a perfect counter to Emigre’s then primarily modular type designs. Dalliance, a classic roman and script combo based on handwriting from a photocopy of a 1799 battle map, was released in 2002 and became an instant classic.

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Developed by Adrian Frutiger for Bauer in 1966, Serifa is a slabserif based on the principles that led to the success of Frutiger’s 1956 sanserif, Univers. Glypha, designed by Frutiger for Stempel in 1979, is a version of Serifa with a moderately larger x-height; Stempel has paid royalties on Glypha to Neufville since 1984.

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Pevensey comes in 7 weights with gradual weight-changes between them for ease of selection, and each weight has Regular, Italic and Oblique versions. The weights that are intended for large bodies of text are Regular and DemiBold. In keeping with the house style, the fonts are numbered (unconventionally but helpfully we think) in ascending order from 1 Regular to 7 Black, which makes font selection so much easier in your software’s font menu. In full the weights are: 1 Regular 2 DemiBold 3 Bold 4 ExtraBold 5 Heavy 6 ExtraHeavy 7 Black . We hope you agree that the font is very readable on the page, and there’s an example on the web-page which gives a brief overview.

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In 1931, The Times of London commissioned the Monotype Corporation, under the direction of Stanley Morison, to design a newspaper typeface.

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Firmin Didot cut the first modern face about 1784 in Paris; Giambattista Bodoni followed prolifically on his heels; his punches and matrices survive in Parma. Bauer has produced the most faithful and delicate contemporary version of his types.

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Shortly after the preparation of the original Century, the two Bentons (father Linn Boyd and son Morris Fuller) prepared a wider version for De Vinne’s press and called it Century Broadface. In 1900 ATF released the design for general use as Century Expanded, one of the most popular and effective of typefaces, to this day the text face of the New York Daily News.

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Designed by Francesco Simoncini and W. Bilz, this design follows Times New Roman in structure, but differs in some details. Unlike Times New Roman, the boldface is a weighted version of the roman.

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Based on a font design called Eldorado, we had to change the name because Linotype has a disimilar typeface of the same name!

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Berling was created by Karl-Erik Forsberg for the Berling foundry in 1951, with other weights added in 1958. The design is an old style roman, particularly useful for books, journals, and other text applications. Although it has higher contrast than most old style typefaces, Berling has the classic features of old style romans with its diminutive x-height, and ascenders that exceed the height of the capital letters. Berling is good for text settings as well as display work.

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Designed by Hans Eduard Meyer for the Stempel foundry in 1968, Syntax is based on both Renaissance minuscule writing and Roman lapidary capitals.

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The Heinemann fonts were initially developed by the in-house design team at Heinemann educational publishing out of the necessity to find the perfect font for use in early primary reading books and literacy products.

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Designed specifically for AT&T by Matthew Carter at Mergenthaler to replace Bell Gothic with a typeface that made effective use of digital typesetting technology, Bell Centennial gets several more lines per page than Bell Gothic, reduces calls to information because of its significantly higher legibility under adverse printing conditions, saving AT&T many millions of dollars per year.

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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.

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Designer Hermann Zapf set out to create a typeface that was ideally suited to newspapers and other legibility applications. Melior is that typeface, released by the Stempel foundry in 1952.

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This Bodoni-like font sets out to slightly square off rounded shapes, adding a very slight curve to the join from the square serif and stem, and minimizing and softening the pronounced bulbs found in Bodoni. There are hints of Walbaum and Melior but the overall effect is a more subtle, and interesting letterform that is friendly, fresh and contemporary.

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Designed to accompany and complement the Sans family, each weight shares the same proportions of x-height, stem thickness and ascender/descender height as its corresponding Sans.

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Snazzy is a sans-serif that is squarer than most other sans faces, giving it a distinct appearance that we think is quite, well, snazzy.

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Designed by Nick Shinn. Digitally engineered by Steve Jackaman.

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Based on the original Stephenson Blake design, circa 1950.

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Royal Romain was commissioned by the most famous king of France, Louis XIV the Sun King. A group of “Scientists” set off to work on the task of producing the ultimate font for the king of all kings. After years of elaborations Philippe Grandjean then started to cut the final punches for the “Imprimerie Royale” and finished his part of the work with the fonts first appearance in the magnificent Médailles sur les principaux énvenémens du règne de Louis-le-Grand (1702). The complete set of 21 sizes of roman and italic letters was finished by Grandjean’s successor Jean Alexandre and completed by Louis Luce in 1745.

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