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Typeface↕ | Designer↕ | Year Released↕ | Classification↕ | Known For↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Helvetica | Max Miedinger & Eduard Hoffmann | 1957 | Neo-grotesque Sans-serif | The most ubiquitous typeface in the history of graphic design, Helvetica was created in Switzerland and its name literally means 'Swiss' in Latin, it is the default font of corporate America appearing in the logos of American Airlines, BMW, Jeep, Lufthansa, Microsoft, Panasonic, Target, Toyota, and dozens more, the 2007 documentary 'Helvetica' is one of the only feature films ever made about a font, designers either worship it as the pinnacle of neutral clarity or despise it as the death of personality in typography, New York City's subway system adopted it in 1989 as the official signage typeface replacing a chaos of competing fonts, the typeface that proved invisibility is the highest compliment a font can receive |
Garamond | Claude Garamond | c. 1530 | Old-style Serif | One of the oldest typefaces still in widespread use nearly 500 years after its creation, Claude Garamond's elegant roman letterforms set the standard for French Renaissance typography, its slender strokes and refined proportions use significantly less ink than most other typefaces — a 2014 study estimated the U.S. government could save $136 million per year by switching to Garamond, Apple used it as their corporate font for decades, countless novels and academic papers are set in Garamond because its gentle curves reduce eye fatigue over long reading sessions, the typeface that proved the 16th century understood something about legibility that we are still catching up to |
Comic Sans | Vincent Connare | 1994 | Casual Sans-serif | The most hated font in the world among designers and simultaneously one of the most popular fonts among everyone else, Vincent Connare designed it for Microsoft Bob by imitating the lettering in comic books like Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, it became the default choice for birthday party invitations, passive-aggressive office signs, and children's homework assignments, the 'Ban Comic Sans' movement has thousands of members worldwide, yet dyslexia researchers have found its irregular letterforms actually make it easier to read for people with dyslexia because each character is distinctly shaped, CERN announced the discovery of the Higgs boson in a Comic Sans presentation proving that the universe's deepest secrets have no respect for typographic snobbery |
Futura | Paul Renner | 1927 | Geometric Sans-serif | Designed in Weimar Germany as the typographic embodiment of Bauhaus modernism, Futura's perfectly geometric letterforms based on circles triangles and squares represented the belief that the future would be rational and clean, it was the font on the plaque left on the Moon by Apollo 11 making it literally the first typeface in outer space, Stanley Kubrick used it extensively in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Wes Anderson uses it in virtually every film he has ever made, Supreme's iconic box logo is set in Futura Heavy Oblique, Nike and Volkswagen have both built brand identities around it, the typeface that decided the future would look like geometry |
Times New Roman | Stanley Morison & Victor Lardent | 1931 | Transitional Serif | Commissioned by The Times of London newspaper after a critic called its previous typeface old-fashioned and ugly, Times New Roman was designed for maximum legibility at small sizes in narrow newspaper columns, Microsoft bundled it with Windows and made it the default font in Word which meant that an entire generation of students professors and office workers defaulted to it for everything from term papers to corporate memos, most academic style guides require or recommend it, it is arguably the single most-read typeface in human history simply because of its two decades as the Microsoft Word default, the font nobody chose but everybody used |
Bodoni | Giambattista Bodoni | c. 1798 | Didone / Modern Serif | The dramatic contrast between its hairline thin strokes and bold thick strokes created a typeface that looks like fashion itself, Vogue magazine has used Bodoni for its masthead since the early 20th century making it synonymous with luxury and high style, Bodoni was called 'the king of typographers and the typographer of kings' because European royalty commissioned him to design their official documents, the extreme stroke contrast means it looks stunning at large display sizes but can be difficult to read at small body text sizes, it influenced virtually every fashion and luxury brand's typographic choices for the next two centuries, the typeface that taught the world that letters themselves can be glamorous |
Fraktur | Various (tradition) | c. 1513 | Blackletter | The ornate broken-letter script that served as the standard typeface of the German-speaking world for over 400 years, the Nazis initially promoted Fraktur as a symbol of Germanic identity but then abruptly banned it in 1941 via the Normalschrifterlass claiming falsely that it had Jewish origins, after the ban it largely disappeared from everyday use though it survives in beer labels, newspaper mastheads, and heavy metal logos, the New York Times still uses a Fraktur-style blackletter for its nameplate, it represents a fascinating case study in how political power can kill a typographic tradition overnight, the typeface that carries more historical baggage than any other letterform in existence |
Gill Sans | Eric Gill | 1926–1932 | Humanist Sans-serif | Designed by the brilliant and deeply controversial sculptor and typographer Eric Gill for the Monotype Corporation, it became the official typeface of the BBC, the Church of England, and the London and North Eastern Railway, its humanist proportions give it warmth that purely geometric sans-serifs like Futura lack, the typeface's legacy is complicated by revelations in Fiona MacCarthy's 1989 biography about Gill's horrific personal life, sparking an ongoing debate about whether great art can be separated from terrible artists, Penguin Books used it on their iconic paperback covers for decades, a typeface simultaneously beloved for its elegance and haunted by its creator's depravity |
Baskerville | John Baskerville | 1757 | Transitional Serif | John Baskerville was a Birmingham industrialist who poured his personal fortune into creating the perfect typeface, his innovations in paper smoothing, ink formulation, and press engineering were as important as the letterforms themselves, Benjamin Franklin was so impressed he brought Baskerville type to America where it influenced the typography of the young republic, a 2012 study by documentarian Errol Morris found that statements set in Baskerville were judged as more believable than the same statements in other typefaces making it literally the most trustworthy font in the world, Baskerville himself was buried in unconsecrated ground as an atheist and his body was exhumed multiple times, the typeface whose creator fought as hard for his letters as he did against convention |
Palatino | Hermann Zapf | 1949 | Old-style Serif | Named after the 16th-century Italian calligrapher Giambattista Palatino, this typeface was designed by Hermann Zapf who drew the original letterforms with a broad-nib pen giving each character a calligraphic warmth rare in metal type, it became one of the ten most used typefaces in the world partly because it was bundled with every Mac since the 1980s, its generous proportions and open counters make it exceptionally readable on screen and in print, Zapf also created Optima and Zapfino making him one of the most prolific type designers in history, Palatino bridges the gap between the warmth of handwriting and the precision of mechanical type in a way few typefaces have ever achieved |
Univers | Adrian Frutiger | 1957 | Neo-grotesque Sans-serif | Released the same year as Helvetica and often overshadowed by its Swiss cousin, Univers was revolutionary because Adrian Frutiger designed it as a complete system of 21 weights and widths organized by a numerical naming scheme that replaced confusing terms like 'bold condensed italic,' this systematic approach influenced how type families are structured to this day, it was chosen as the signage typeface for the Montreal Metro, Charles de Gaulle Airport, and the 1972 Munich Olympics, many typographers actually prefer it to Helvetica for its slightly warmer geometry and more logical family structure, the typeface that lost the popularity contest but won the design argument |
Caslon | William Caslon | c. 1722 | Old-style Serif | The first great English typeface that ended Britain's dependence on Dutch type foundries, William Caslon's sturdy practical letterforms became the workhorse of the 18th-century English-speaking world, the original printings of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were set in Caslon making it arguably the font of American democracy, the old typographer's adage 'when in doubt, use Caslon' reflects its reputation as the safest choice for virtually any job, its slightly irregular letterforms give printed text a handcrafted warmth that more mechanical typefaces cannot replicate, Benjamin Franklin used it extensively in his printing house making Caslon the typeface of the American Enlightenment |
Roboto | Christian Robertson | 2011 | Neo-grotesque Sans-serif | Google's signature typeface designed specifically for the Android operating system and now the default font across virtually all Google products including YouTube, Google Maps, and Gmail, its dual nature combines geometric forms with open curves allowing it to feel both modern and natural on screens of every size, it is the most-served font on Google Fonts with trillions of views making it statistically the most-seen typeface on the internet, Robertson designed it with a 'skeleton' that is largely grotesque while its curves are friendly and open, Roboto is to the smartphone era what Helvetica was to the corporate era — the typeface so omnipresent you stop noticing it which is exactly the point |
Didot | Firmin Didot | c. 1784 | Didone / Modern Serif | The French counterpart to Italy's Bodoni, Didot's extreme contrast between thick vertical strokes and impossibly thin horizontal hairlines created a typeface that is essentially fashion typeset, Harper's Bazaar has used Didot for its masthead for decades and CBS uses a modified Didot for its iconic eye logo, the Didot family were not just type designers but also printers, publishers, and papermakers who dominated French publishing for generations, the typeface performs beautifully at large sizes where its dramatic stroke contrast commands attention but becomes nearly illegible at small sizes where the hairlines disappear, the typeface that proved elegance and practicality are often at war with each other |
Avenir | Adrian Frutiger | 1988 | Geometric Sans-serif | Adrian Frutiger called Avenir his finest work, designing it as an improved Futura that corrected what he saw as Renner's overly rigid geometry with subtle humanist adjustments — the 'o' is not a perfect circle and vertical strokes are slightly thicker than horizontals to compensate for optical illusions, Apple adopted it as a system font for iOS and it appears throughout Apple Maps, Apple chose it specifically because it remains legible at the tiny sizes required for map labels on phone screens, the name means 'future' in French echoing Futura's German meaning, Frutiger spent his entire career refining sans-serif design and considered Avenir the culmination of everything he learned, the typeface that took sixty years of typographic knowledge to make something that looks effortlessly simple |
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