Futura has an appearance of efficiency and forwardness. Although Renner was not associated with the Bauhaus, he shared many of its idioms and believed that a modern typeface should express modern models, rather than be a revival of a previous design. Renner's design rejected the approach of most previous sans-serif designs (now often called grotesques), which were based on the models of signpainting, condensed lettering and nineteenth-century serif typefaces, in favour of simple geometric forms: near-perfect circles, triangles and squares. It is based on strokes of near-even weight, which are low in contrast. The lowercase has tall ascenders, which rise above the cap line, and uses nearly-circular, single-storey forms for the "a" and "g", the former previously more common in handwriting than in printed text.[lower-alpha 1] The uppercase characters present proportions similar to those of classical Roman capitals.[7] The original metal type showed extensive adaptation of the design to individual sizes, and several divergent digitisations have been released by different companies.[8]
Futura was extensively marketed by Bauer Type Foundry and its American distribution arm by brochure as capturing the spirit of modernity, using the German slogan "die Schrift unserer Zeit" ("the typeface of our time") and in English "the typeface of today and tomorrow".[9][10] It has remained popular since then.[5][11]
Release
Original drafts of Futura had more abstract variant designs for several letters, such as a two-storey lowercase "a" (left, compared to Futura's standard one-storey "a" at right).
Paul Renner began sketching his letters that would become Futura in 1924; the typeface was available for use three years later.[12] Matrices for machine composition were made by Intertype.
Futura was developed as a contribution to the New Frankfurt project, a radical affordable housing project in Frankfurt, Germany that many renowned modernist architects at the time were involved in. Described as “the typeface of our time” and “a face representing the new typography of the European avant-garde”, Futura was released to stand out against the sans-serif and more elaborate, handwritten-style typefaces that were popular at the time in order to promote simplicity, modernism and industrialization.[13]
Despite its clean geometric appearance, some of Futura's design choices recalled classic serif typefaces. Unlike many sans-serif designs intended for display purposes, Futura has quite a low x-height, reducing its stridency and increasing its suitability for body text.[lower-alpha 2] The original Futura design concept included small capitals and old-style figures. These were dropped from the original metal issue of the type and first offered digitally by Neufville Digital under the Futura ND family;[citation needed] small caps are also available in the URW++ digitisation.
The design of Futura avoids the decorative, eliminating nonessential elements, but makes subtle departures from pure geometric designs that allow the letterforms to seem balanced.[15] This is visible in the apparently almost perfectly round stroke of the o, which is nonetheless slightly ovoid, and in how the circular strokes of letters like b gently thin as they merge with the verticals. Renner's biographer Christopher Burke has noted the important role of the Bauer Foundry's manufacturing team in adapting the design for different sizes of text, a feature not seen in digital releases.[8] However, Renner expressed some disappointment with the slow design and release process, as it allowed Erbar (1926) to precede his design and other typefaces of similar design to appear in the same year as its release.[1]
Renner's original plan was for two versions: a more conventional version suitable for general use, and a more eccentric, geometric lower case based on the circle and triangle.[16] This plan was scrapped, although the characters did appear on an early specimen and more recently on at least one digitisation.[17]
Futura was immediately very successful, and was heavily marketed as embodying the spirit of modernity. Other foundries quickly launched derivative geometric sans-serif typefaces, particularly in the United States. In the UK Futura, while sometimes used, was overshadowed by Gill Sans, which became popular for similar reasons in the UK and came to define 1930s and 1940s printing. While more humanist, it also has geometric leanings which are particularly visible in the capitals.
At a time when Hitler and Nazi Germany ideologies were on the rise, typefaces were a strong indicator of culture and national identity. Roman typefaces were rising in popularity, and they were becoming the standard text for printed documents when previously, German Blackletter was the default style. As a way to hold on to German identity, the Germans pushed for the use of Blackletter typefaces over Roman.
When the Nazi regime rose into power in 1933, they utilized Blackletter typefaces to further promote German national identity. They determined Fraktur to be the true German type. They rejected modern type styles like Futura, which went on to become popular throughout the world, influenced by the Bauhaus and the English Arts and Crafts Movements.[18]
Futura made appearances on Nazi documentation, such as the "Organisationsbuch der NSDAP”, an informational handbook about membership to the Nazi Party and posters promoting “Entartete Kunst” (Degenerate Art), the exhibition that was created by the Nazis to shame modern art. In 1941, the Nazi regime deemed blackletter typefaces to have Jewish heritage due to the Nazi's perception of the typeface looking too similar to Hebrew, and therefore banned Fraktur and any other traditional German handwriting. Roman typography, which included Futura, became the new standard due to its superior legibility over blackletter typography.[19]
Design historian Dan Reynolds notes that its slogan "the typeface of today" was not the first time Bauer had used that slogan: it had previously been used to market Wienyk-Kursiv, a florid script typeface that never became very popular, around 1914: "Nobody has ever described Wieynk-Kursiv that way since then, as the claim was simply not accurate, just aspirational. I think the company had a marketing slogan in its back pocket, which it hoped would eventually stick. With Futura, it finally did".[20]
Usage
A metal type specimen sheet of Futura Bold Condensed. Many styles and weights of Futura were rapidly created as a brand extension.The commemorative plaque left on the Moon in July 1969 features text set in Futura.
Futura remains an important typeface family and is used on a daily basis for print and digital purposes as both a headline and body font. The font is also used extensively in advertisements and logos, notably by IKEA (until 2010), Supreme, Party City, Volkswagen (until 2015), Royal Dutch Shell, Crayola, Swissair, FremantleMedia (until 2018), Absolut and HP in their print ads.[citation needed] Particularly until the 1950s it was used extensively by the publishing industry as a general-purpose font.
Beginning in the late 1970s, Futura was also the iconic typeface used by American Conceptual artist Barbara Kruger. She layers white text, set in Futura Bold Oblique, on a red background against black and white found photography from mass media sources. Her text challenges the viewer to reflect on gender, stereotypes and consumerism. Some of her notable works where Futura is featured are “Untitled (Your body is a battleground)", "You Are Not Yourself" and "I shop, Therefore I Am".[21]
Cyrillic variant of the Futura typeface made for the Summer Olympic Games Moscow 1980.Autopilot controls of a Boeing 747 with legend written in Futura. Use of the font is widespread in the aerospace industry for flight instrument and control markings
A Cyrillic variant of the Futura Medium typography was made by Anatoli Muzanov for the 1980 Summer Olympics held in Moscow.[22]
Futura has been used extensively in film and video. It is used for the title logo of the 1999 film American Beauty. It was also used in various TV shows including Doug, Lost andWarehouse 13. The most notable show to utilize Futura was Sesame Street, as the font was used whenever letters, numbers, or words were displayed. To make the font more distinguishable to children, some of the characters were altered, such as the addition of serifs on the capital "I", a tail on the lowercase "j", and an open variant of the number "4". Futura is featured ubiquitously throughout the film adaptation of V for Vendetta, for everything from the title logo and ending credits, to signs, newspapers, computer screens and other props. Some filmmakers used Futura in almost all of their films like Gaspar Noe.[23]Wes Anderson is also fond of the font and used it in some of his films. Futura was also Stanley Kubrick's favorite typeface.[24]
Transport is another important area where Futura has been used extensively due to its ability to be read quickly from a distance; it can be found extensively in the instrument panel graphics within automobiles— Mercedes-Benz, Citroën being some of the most prolific users of the font. Futura is used extensively in aviation for instruments and control legends— most Boeing airliners use Futura within their cockpit controls, for example. NASA used Futura frequently during the Apollo space program, with charts, technical documents, and spacecraft instrumentation labels all making use of the typeface.
Crockett Johnson used Futura for the lettering of his Barnaby comic strip, which started running in April 1942 in the newspaper PM. Where many cartoonists lettered their dialogues by hand, Johnson collaborated with the PM typesetters who would set his dialogues in italicized Futura medium and return them to him so that they could be integrated to his drawings.[25]
NBC used a modified version of Futura for its original 1986 version of the current logo and its wordmarks.[26] A bold version of the font was used for NBC Sports on-screen graphics from 1989 to 1991, and by CBS Sports from 1992 to 1996.
Futura is used on the current TV5 logo, the "Rainbow" logo of previous GMA Network in Extra Heavy style, and is also Animax Asia's main typeface. Vampire Weekend's first four albums use Futura on the covers, with the first two being exclusively Futura. The Boston Celtics' championship banners are also in Futura Condensed. 2008 science fiction-fantasy film City of Ember features Futura Medium in many prints through the story. The condensed version was used by videogame developer Bethesda Softworks for several of their games, including Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4 as well as being used extensively throughout the Watchmen graphic novel as well as the movie based on it. The Medium version is a font used predominantly alongside the Stratum 2 font in the 2014 racing video game Driveclub. The Hoops & Yoyo advertisements used Futura. In season 2 of Stargate Universe, episode "Common Descent– Part 1" the ancestors of the crew state that one of the two continents was named "Futura". There are several references to the name being a font in the episode. Futura also served as the typeface for UK television series Utopia's title cards, coloured white upon a neon yellow background (neon green in season two).
Later metal type versions
Futura Condensed
Futura Condensed is a condensed version of the original Futura font family. Bold and bold oblique fonts were released in 1930. Medium, medium oblique, extra bold, and extra bold oblique fonts were released in 1936. Light and light oblique fonts were released in 1950.
Futura Demibold
Futura Demibold is a variation of the original Futura.[29][30][31][32]
Futura Display (Futura Schlagzeile)
Futura Display in a specimen book.
Released in 1932, Futura Display uses more angular strokes, resulting in rectangular letter forms.
This is also the font used on the covers of the classic Region 2 Doctor Who DVD covers, and was used on the covers of most Star Trek novels published by Pocket Books during the 1980s. A slimmer variant seems to have been used by the Canadian Tire Corporation in their wordmark and logo. Futura Display is also used in the logo for the manga/anime series My Hero Academia.
Futura Black
A metal type specimen of Futura Black
First released in 1929, Futura Black is an alternative design that uses stencil letter forms, high contrast and triangular serifs, with similarities to fat face types.[33] Example uses of the font include the public safety departments of the city of Boston, the "R" logo of the National Association of Realtors, title sequences of television programs such as The Love Boat and Prisoner: Cell Block H, and as the wordmark for the National Football League's Minnesota Vikings from 1982 to 2003. The movie logo for the 2021 James Bond film No Time to Die also uses Futura Black.
Steile Futura
Steile Futura was Paul Renner's attempt to create a typeface that would be closer to the nineteenth century sans serifs than to the geometric model. During the course of development, Renner developed several intermediate versions. Some of the early design could be found in the experimental font called Renner-Grotesk, which appeared as a trial type casting from the Stempel type foundry in 1936. Renner kursiv, a true italic companion to the regular version, was made after Stempel had been taken over by Bauer in 1938.
The work on the type family continued in the 1940s, but Renner's poor health had slowed down the development. Renner started to work again on this project in 1951 under the name of Steile Futura (steil in German means "upright" or "steep").
The font family released by Bauer consist of mager (light), halbfett (medium), fett (bold), kursiv halbfett (medium italic), and kursiv fett (bold italic). The font family was released in 1952–1953. It was sold by Bauer in German, English, Spanish, and French markets as Steile Futura, Bauer Topic, Vox, Zénith respectively.[34]
The font family has rounder letters than Futura Display. For the first time, italic type features are incorporated in the italic fonts. The fonts incorporate handwriting features, especially in italic version. URW and Berthold have released digitisations, URW's under the name of "Topic", its name in original release in some non-German speaking countries.[35][36]Tasse by Font Bureau is a loose adaptation.[37]
Futura Inline
Sample of the font Futura Inline in metal type.
An "inline" version with a line drawn through each letter.
Digitisations
A comparison of Futura weights in digital format.
With the demise of hot metal typesetting, Futura has been redrawn in digital formats. Because of complex licensing agreements, there is no one digital version of Futura but several, each with different features. (Some releases may be re-drawings or upgraded versions of earlier digital releases.) Releases of Futura exist from Linotype, Bitstream, URW++ (several), Elsner+Flake and many others under that name, and by many other companies under others because of rights issues. For example, Fontsite's (including Futura Black and Poster) is renamed as 'Function'.[38][39][40]
As with all metal type revivals, converting Futura into a digital format poses interpretative challenges. Metal type fonts could be made differently for each text size, so a variety of metal and phototype versions of Futura exist on which a revival could potentially be based. In addition, revivals will need to add characters not present in the original Futura like the Euro sign and Cyrillic, and therefore do not all have the same character set.
Futura revivals may also decide to make design changes, like replacing Futura's straight 'j' with a more conventional substitute as URW's revival does. Scangraphic's revival notably includes optical sizes, with a tighter-spaced design (SH) created for headlines and a more spread-out version (SB) for body text sizes.[41][42] As an assessment of the decisions involved, a wide-ranging review by Stephen Coles of digitisations of Futura and its competitor geometrics noted that Bitstream's "abandons some of the strict geometry in favour of a more harmonious whole, but it may not be the Futura you were expecting", and that URW's Futura Nr. 2 was "Possibly optimized for small text: it’s wider, ascenders shorter, counters larger, and apertures more open. Conversely, round glyphs (a, g, e,) are more true to the circle. This attribute doesn’t make this a great text face, but if you want that strict geometry, No. 2 delivers".[43]
Architype Renner (1993)
Released by The Foundry in 1993, reproduces the experimental alternate characters and old style text figures of Paul Renner's 1927–29 typeface Futura. The alternate characters Renner proposed were mostly deleted from the typeface, resulting in a more conventional, and perhaps more successful typeface. The old style text figures disappeared at the end of 1920s, when the typeface was released in America. The Archetype Renner typefaces are a faithful recreation of Renner's original designs and released by The Foundry as single regular weight. Archetype Renner Bold was originally released by The Foundry in 1996 as part of the Archetype 2 series and in 2011 it was expanded as a 4 weight family: Regular, Medium, Demi and Bold.
The letter G from the Neufville digitisation of Futura, compared to perfect circles.
This version is based on the original sources of the Bauer Type Foundry, which had passed its typefaces to its Barcelona branch, Fundición Tipográfica Bauer SL. Released in 1999 by Neufville Digital— a joint venture of Fundición Tipográfica Bauer SL and Visualogik Technology & Design b.v— it includes small capitals and the old-style figures that had not been made in metal types. The redesign was done by Marie-Thérèse Koreman.[44]
Neufville Digital issued Futura, Futura Black, Futura Condensed, and Futura Display (Futura Schlagzeile) under the Futura ND family.[45] A limited release with some weights and features missing is bundled with macOS.
OpenType features included stylistic alternates, lining figures, proportional figures, old style figures, tabular figures, fractions, standard/discretional ligatures, superscript, small caps.
Futura ND Alternate (2015)
Designed by Marie-Thérèse Koreman, it is a version of Futura ND published by Bauer Type Foundry. with alternate character designs, which also includes more angular glyphs found in early versions of Futura.[46]
The family includes 50 fonts in 6 weights and 2 widths, with book and demibold missing in condensed width, with complementary oblique.
Futura Next (2016)
Designed by Marie-Thérèse Koreman, it is a version of Futura ND Alternate with alternate characters designed for small or low resolution displays.[47]
The family includes 20 fonts in 6 weights and 2 widths, with book and demibold missing in condensed width, with complementary oblique. Small caps and old style figures are included in 18 fonts.
ParaType version
The ParaType fonts added Cyrillic characters. They were developed at ParaType (ParaGraph) in 1995 by Vladimir Yefimov. They came in only Light, Book, Medium, and Demi weights.
Futura PT
This version is based on the previous ParaType design by Vladimir Yefimov (see above), expanded to include seven weights, with Book, Medium, Bold, Extra Bold weights for condensed fonts. Additional Cyrillic styles were developed in 2007 by Isabella Chaeva.[48]
Futura Futuris
Futuris is a redesign at ParaType (ParaGraph) in 1991 by Vladimir Yefimov that includes Cyrillic characters. Condensed styles were added in 1993 by Vladimir Yefimov and Alexander Tarbeev. It is available in Light, Medium, Bold, Black (without oblique) weights, while condensed fonts were made in Bold, Extra Bold, all without obliques. Also available are Cameo Extra Bold (black in reverse), Shadow Light, Shadow Extra Bold (black with shadow), Volume Light.[49]
Futura Eugenia
This version is based on the Futura Black, but designed at the Polygraphmash type design bureau in 1987 by Elvira Slysh.[50]
Bukra
Bukra is an Arabic variant designed by Pascal Zoghbi. It consists of Bukra Extra Bold, which was used as an Arabic display typeface for Ibn Battuta Mall in Dubai as a complement for Futura Extra Bold. The design was based on Kufi script, but using shortened descenders. The name Bukra itself is a phonetic representation of one way to express "tomorrow" or "in the future" in some Arabic cultures.
URW++
Unusually, URW has two main digitisations, Futura and Futura No. 2. Futura 1 has the larger range of weights with some unusual versions like stencil and shadowed designs, while Futura No. 2 has, amongst other differences, a conventional 'j' in all the non-condensed weights apart from demi-bold, but no italics except in some bold weights. According to URW, No. 2 is based on Letraset's version.[51] It has also released some styles as Futura 3 and 7.
Futura Classic
This release by Gert Wiescher is notable for presenting the original alternate characters planned by Renner.[52] They have also appeared on a digitisation of Twentieth Century, Monotype's competitor to Futura, a release which allows them to be mixed and matched with the more standard characters and small caps.[53]
FuturaRenner
This free and open source typeface was digitized by Bastien Sozoo in 2011 around his presence at La Cambre art school in Brussels. The metal lead type in the letterpress facility of the school were given by Renner to Henry Van de Velde, the school founder, and the original 1927 forms are, as Sozoo described it, "the first draft of Futura as we know it". While the capital letters are very similar to their modern counterparts (some visible differences include capital J's descent below the base line and a slightly higher crossbar on capital A), FuturaRenner uses text figures as opposed to the usual lining figures, and the letter forms of r (which has a distinctive dot-and-line styling), m and n (both of which are box-based and unrounded) are in particular contrast to modern Futura adaptations. FuturaRenner is available in light and regular weights, both of which are licensed under the SIL Open Font License.[54]
Futura Now
In October 2020, Monotype re-digitized and released as Futura Now, which is based on Paul Renner's original design with additional 102 styles.[55]
Legacy
Though Erbar was the first of the new geometric sans-serif typefaces, the commercial success of Futura encouraged other foundries to create many new similar typefaces to compete with it, including Kabel, Metro, Spartan, Vogue, Twentieth Century, Airport, Semplicità, Bernhard Gothic, and Tempo. Some were near-identical copies, like Spartan and Twentieth Century, while others were more distinct, like Nobel and Kabel. Futura was rebranded in France by Deberny & Peignot as "Europe".[56]
In Germany the designer Arno Drescher created the family Super Grotesk, which became very popular in East Germany after the war.[57][58] Stephen Coles has described FontShop International's Super Grotesk digitisation as surprisingly useful, noting that its digitisation is unusually well-hinted allowing good display on Windows computers.[43][59] It also features a conventional 'j'. Another German competitor, also recently digitised by FontFont, was Friedrich Bauer's Bauer Grotesk, issued by J. D. Trennert & Sohn and then Genzsch & Heyse.[60][61]
Volkswagen's VAG Rounded typeface borrows the same letterforms as Futura, but has rounded terminals on all strokes.
Typeface designer Adrian Frutiger acknowledges Futura as one of his inspirations for his 1988 typeface Avenir.[56] More recently Futura has been the basis of IKEA Sans and Opel Sans, fonts designed (for IKEA and Opel, respectively) by Robin Nicholas.[62][unreliable source?]
Century Gothic borrows liberally from Futura letterforms, with the glyphs adjusted to be metrically compatible with another geometric sans-serif, ITC Avant Garde.
Brandon Grotesque is inspired by Futura but with an unusually low x-height, giving it a more elegant appearance for uses such as headings and display settings.[63] Designed by Hannes von Döhren of HVD Fonts, it is the main corporate font of Comedy Central until 2018.[64] In 2014, von Döhren released Brandon Text, a tighter version intended for body text.[65]
The 2000 typeface Gotham is similarly geometric and based on 1920s signage.
Passata is a modernised version of Futura specifically designed to replace Futura as the corporate branding font of Aarhus University.
Product Sans is similar to Futura with slight differences.
American singer and rapper Frank Ocean mentions the font many times on his album Blonde, even using a variant of the font for the album cover and using the name for the song "Futura Free".
Arve Båtevik designed two typefaces which are based on the Futura typeface: LL Supreme and LL Supreme Display.[66][67]
Josh Finklea's Centra No.2 is heavily based on Futura. [68]
In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif, gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than serif typefaces. They are often used to convey simplicity and modernity or minimalism. For the purposes of type classification, sans-serif designs are usually divided into these major groups: § Grotesque and § Neo-grotesque, § Geometric, § Humanist and § Other or mixed.
Helvetica, also known by its original name Neue Haas Grotesk, is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann.
Rockwell is a slab serif typeface designed by the Monotype Corporation and released in 1934. The project was supervised by Monotype's engineering manager Frank Hinman Pierpont. This typeface is distinguished by a serif at the apex of the uppercase A, while the lowercase a has two storeys. Because of its monoweighted stroke, Rockwell is used primarily for display or at small sizes rather than as a body text. Rockwell is based on an earlier, more condensed slab serif design cast by the Inland Type Foundry called Litho Antique.
Univers is a large sans-serif typeface family designed by Adrian Frutiger and released by his employer Deberny & Peignot in 1957. Classified as a neo-grotesque sans-serif, one based on the model of nineteenth-century German typefaces such as Akzidenz-Grotesk, it was notable for its availability from the moment of its launch in a comprehensive range of weights and widths. The original marketing for Univers deliberately referenced the periodic table to emphasise its scope.
Gill Sans is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Eric Gill and released by the British branch of Monotype from 1928 onwards.
Franklin Gothic and its related faces are a large family of sans-serif typefaces in the industrial or grotesque style developed in the early years of the 20th century by the type foundry American Type Founders (ATF) and credited to its head designer Morris Fuller Benton. "Gothic" was a contemporary term meaning sans-serif.
Akzidenz-Grotesk is a sans-serif typeface family originally released by the Berthold Type Foundry of Berlin. "Akzidenz" indicates its intended use as a typeface for commercial print runs such as publicity, tickets and forms, as opposed to fine printing, and "grotesque" was a standard name for sans-serif typefaces at the time.
Clarendon is the name of a slab serif typeface that was released in 1845 by Thorowgood and Co. of London, a letter foundry often known as the Fann Street Foundry. The original Clarendon design is credited to Robert Besley, a partner in the foundry, and was originally engraved by punchcutter Benjamin Fox, who may also have contributed to its design. Many copies, adaptations and revivals have been released, becoming almost an entire genre of type design.
Kabel is a geometric sans-serif typeface that was designed by the German designer Rudolf Koch and released by the Klingspor foundry from 1927 onward.
News Gothic is a sans-serif typeface designed by Morris Fuller Benton, and was released in 1908 by his employer American Type Founders (ATF). The typeface is similar in proportion and structure to Franklin Gothic, also designed by Benton, but lighter.
Twentieth Century is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by Sol Hess for Lanston Monotype in 1937. It was created as a competitor to the successful Futura typeface for Monotype's hot metal typesetting system. Like Futura it has a single-story 'a' and a straight 'j' with no bend.
Monotype Grotesque is a family of sans-serif typefaces released by the Monotype Corporation for its hot metal typesetting system. It belongs to the grotesque or industrial genre of early sans-serif designs. Like many early sans-serifs, it forms a sprawling family designed at different times.
Folio is a sans-serif typeface in the neo-grotesque style designed by Konrad Friedrich Bauer and Walter Baum in 1957 for the Bauer Type Foundry. Bauer licensed the design to Fonderie Typographique Française for sale in France under the name Caravelle.
Jakob Erbar was a German professor of graphic design and a type designer. Erbar trained as a typesetter for the Dumont-Schauberg Printing Works before studying under Fritz Helmut Ehmcke and Anna Simons. Erbar went on to teach in 1908 at the Städtischen Berufsschule and from 1919 to his death at the Kölner Werkschule. His seminal Erbar series was one of the first geometric sans-serif typefaces, predating both Paul Renner's Futura and Rudolf Koch's Kabel by some five years.
In typography, Erbar or Erbar-Grotesk is a sans-serif typeface in the geometric style, one of the first designs of this kind released as type. Designer Jakob Erbar's aim was to design a printing type which would be free of all individual characteristics, possess thoroughly legible letter forms, and be a purely typographic creation. His conclusion was that this could only work if the type form was developed from a fundamental element, the circle. Erbar-Grotesk was developed in stages; Erbar wrote that he had originally sketched out the design in 1914 but had been prevented from working on it due to the war. The original version of Erbar was released in 1926, following Erbar's "Phosphor" titling capitals of 1922 which are very similar in design.
Britannic is a sans-serif typeface family that was sold in metal type by Stephenson Blake. It is a "modulated" or stressed sans-serif design, in which the vertical lines are clearly thicker than the horizontals. The Klingspor Museum reports that it was originally created by the Wagner & Schmidt foundry of Leipzig, Germany. In design it is intended for headings, advertisements and signs rather than continuous body text. Stephenson Blake advertised it as "just the right note for an advertising or display panel".
Venus or Venus-Grotesk is a sans-serif typeface family released by the Bauer Type Foundry of Frankfurt am Main, Germany from 1907 onwards. Released in a large range of styles, including condensed and extended weights, it was very popular in the early-to-mid twentieth century. It was exported to other countries, notably the United States, where it was distributed by Bauer Alphabets Inc, the U.S. branch of the firm.
Berthold Block is a sans-serif typeface released by the H. Berthold foundry in the early twentieth century and intended for display use. Block has a chunky design suitable for headings, with short descenders allowing tight linespacing and rounded corners. It is sometimes simply called "Block". Font design expert Stephen Coles describes it as "a soft but substantial display face with compact dimensions and an organic appearance…[it] isn’t meant for body copy." The Klingspor Museum credits it to Hermann Hoffmann, who managed type design for Berthold.
URW Grotesk is a large sans-serif typeface family designed by Hermann Zapf for URW in the mid-1980s.
Semplicità is a sans-serif typeface of the geometric style. It was published by the Nebiolo type foundry of Turin, Italy from around 1928.
↑ "Futura SH". MyFonts. Scangraphic. Retrieved 2 October 2015.
↑ "Futura SB". MyFonts. Scangraphic. Retrieved 2 October 2015.
1 2 Coles, Stephen. "Alternatives to Futura". Fontshop. Archived from the original on March 16, 2015. Retrieved 2 October 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
↑ It was, though, not the first sans-serif with these features: Koralle, for instance, already used a single-storey 'a', and the form is standard in blackletter.[6]
↑ This characteristic did vary by size: unlike digital facsimiles, Futura in metal type was made differently at different sizes.[14]
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