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Bell Centennial

Bell Centennial

by Bitstream
Individual Styles from $29.99 USD
Complete family of 4 fonts: $59.99 USD
Bell Centennial Font Family was designed by Matthew Carter, Alex Kaczun and published by Bitstream. Bell Centennial contains 4 styles and family package options.

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About Bell Centennial Font Family


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. Although intended for use at small sizes, Mazda UK used Bell Centennial at huge sizes to striking effect in a mid-1990s ad campaign.

Designers: Matthew Carter, Alex Kaczun

Publisher: Bitstream

Foundry: Bitstream

Design Owner: Bitstream

MyFonts debut: Jan 1, 2000

Bell Centennial

About Bitstream

Bitstream is known among type enthusiasts and professionals alike as being one of the companies that lead the way towards the democratization of type. For centuries, the type world had been the exclusive domain of skilled typographers who worked large, cumbersome presses. With the birth of digital type though, came a revolution in the industry that enabled Bitstream, one of the first digital type foundries, to help grow the desktop publishing industry. The company’s founders shared a vision in which desktop publishing and digital type would open up doors and allow for the access of previously exclusive typefaces to a broader public audience. Eventually, this idea of opening up the type market led to the development of fonts like Amerigo and New Lincoln Gothic; designs that played huge roles in the launching, and eventual success, of desktop publishing. With best-selling typefaces like Futura in its line up, this library made an enormous impact on the type industry and helped to form it into what it is today.

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