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Excelsior Alternatives

See also: Ball Terminals

Noah Nazir
E
Last edited August 13, 2018

Before designing this font, C.H. Griffith consulted the results of a survey of optometrists regarding optimal legibility. Excelsior font was then presented by Mergenthaler Linotype in 1931 and remains one of the most legible and popular fonts worldwide.

rocket
wunderkinder
A friction is very interesting

Created at D. Stempel AG in 1977, Linotype's Gazette is a text typeface that was designed to withstand the rigors of high-speed newspaper presses and coarse newsprint. It is also guaranteed to result in legible texts despite long press runs.

vortex
wunderkinder
Life’s a bitch, and I’m a dog

After the Second World War, the Ionic style replaced Modern Face as the favored typeface for newsprint. A couple decades later, it was in turn replaced by the next generation of newspaper fonts, a mix of Old Face, Transitional and Modern Face forms. Olympian font itself tends toward the Old Face style but is nevertheless an example of this new generation, a result of a time of change and... Read More

winter
fiddlesticks
Beware of the brick in front of you

Nimrod was released by Monotype in 1980. Designed for current newspaper technology, the Nimrod font family evolved as a result of extensive examination of newspaper industry needs. Nimrod retains many of the features of the traditional newspaper Ionics, but some of the fussier detailing has been replaced by the more sober forms of the old styles, such as Plantin. A highly legible font family,... Read More

brandy
illustrative
Move fast and break stuff

Check also: GIA NEU 1. Runde

Plantin is a family of text typefaces created by Monotype in 1913. Their namesake, Christophe Plantin (Christoffel Plantijn in Dutch),... Read More

rocket
enthusiastic
Dried ball bursts into rage

In 1931, The Times of London commissioned a new text type design from Stanley Morison and the Monotype Corporation, after Morison had written an article criticizing The Times for being badly printed and typographically behind the times. The new design was supervised by Stanley Morison and drawn by Victor Lardent, an artist from the advertising department of The Times. Morison used an older... Read More

mystic
bureaucratic
Go on with your bad self

Designed for the newspaper technology of the 1980s, Clarion uses many of the findings made in the preparation of Monotype Nimrod, from which it is derived. The Clarion font family differs from Nimrod in its detailing, which is more akin to that of the Ionics, a style which influenced most designers of contemporary newspaper faces. The large x-height and sturdy construction of the characters... Read More

vortex
illustrative
Go ahead, make my day

ITC Mendoza is a serif typeface with old style characteristics. A generous x-height and a lack of contrast between thick and thin strokes, gives the ITC Mendoza Roman font family good legibility and provides a sturdiness which enables the face to withstand low resolution output and less than ideal printing conditions. It is ideal for continuous text use, particularly in small point sizes.

rocket
bureaucratic
A friction is very interesting

Designed by M. Fahrenwaldt for the Schriftguss foundry in 1929, Minister font is a contemporary design based on Garalde types. The letters have an oblique stress, capitals are wide, serifs are prominently concave. Minister font has obvious calligraphic overtones, making it a good informal text face.

vortex
ultraviolets
Let us do the birds friend

When traveling in Paris, American designer Frederic W. Goudy did a rubbing of a second century marble inscription he found in the Louvre. After ruminating on these letterforms for several years, he drew a titling typeface in 1918, all around the letters P, R, and E. He called the new face "Hadriano" as that name was in the original inscription. Robert Wiebking cut the matrices, and the... Read More

vortex
abstractions
This shop does not receive the dog

Res Publica is a workhorse. It is quite anonymous as typeface, without any distinctive marks. But it gives a harmonious text body, well suited for large amounts of text, such as official public reports, magazines based mainly on text, school books, and so on.The "public" concept is part of the name. Res Publica is Latin for "public matters". The word republic has the same origin.Res Publica was... Read More

grapes
microphysics
Please carefully bang head

Linotype Really, designed by Gary Munch, is a typeface family of six weights with italics and small capitals that offers a broad palette of expressions to draw from, sensibly light to brightly stentorian. The moderate-to-strong contrast of the vertical to horizontal strokes recalls the Transitional and Modern styles of Baskerville and Bodoni, and the subtly obliqued axis of the stoke weight... Read More

brandy
hypothenuses
No kicking of balls please

Rudolph Ruzicka designed his font Fairfield as a legible text font. His philosophy: "The reader expects optical assistance with reading. He does not want to be distracted while interpreting and understanding the ideas of a text." Fairfield font is based on the forms of Venecian Old Face fonts as well as on the designs and details of Art Deco, giving the font a distinctive appearance

safety
zygapophysis
Remember to pillage before you burn

Linotype Monticello was designed by C.H. Griffith in 1946. Its design is based on James Ronaldsons Roman No.1 and Oxford Typefaces from American Type Founders and was revised by Matthew Carter while he was working at Linotype between 1965 -1981.

grapes
zygapophysis
If you can’t join them, beat them

Rundfunk Antiqua was originally designed as a font for small point size and shorter texts. It was presented 1933/35 by Linotype Designstudio but unfortunately never developed as a font family, including only Antiqua roman and sans-serif bold. Such an unusual combination resulted from the font combinations common during that time. Rundfunk Antiqua font's basic forms tend toward the Transitional... Read More

winter
hypothenuses
Survivors will be shot again

This font is a late work of the famous Berlin font artist Martin Wilke. Presented by Linotype AG in 1988, Wilke is a lively font with eccentric, playful forms. Wilke was influenced in part by the letters of the Irish handwriting in the Book of Kells, written in the late 8th century, while the pronounced contrast in strokes goes back to the styles of the 18th century. the font's uniqueness is... Read More

brandy
abstractions
Miscellaneous bacteria pot monsters

ITC Tiffany font was designed by Edward Benguiat, a highly contemporary blend of two fonts, Ronaldson and Caxton. The best characteristics of both were combined to produce a refined and refreshing font, ITC Tiffany.

replay
illustrative
Please do not get over it

Loosely based on Bembo and Plantin, the Perrywood font family retains some old style characteristics which give the face a familiar feel, however much attention has been paid to optimizing the design to give good quality output at small point sizes and from low resolution output devices. The consistency of character shapes allows close letter spacing to give compact word shapes, excellent word... Read More

mystic
hypothenuses
Math is easy, design is hard

I have a notation that the summer of 1994, when I worked with Kalix, was a warm one. I had no special typeface in mind when drawing the characters of Kalix, but many typefaces contributed to it, e.g. my own Omnibus from which I borrowed the looks of the smal case g. I think it is a lovely typeface whose use is mainly for books and magazines.Kalix is the name of a northern Swedish town situated... Read More

mystic
microphysics
Miscellaneous bacteria pot monsters

Gerard Unger developed Swift™ between 1984 and 1987, with the intention of making a modern digital type for newspapers. The project was undertaken for the German firm Dr.-Ing Rudolf Hell GmbH. At that time, newspapers were produced on high-speed presses with low quality paper. Unger says Swift is "designed to be a survivor." It has chunky triangular serifs, sturdy connections at junctures,... Read More

Edwin W. Shaar
Bitstream

Linotype
Matthew Carter
Linotype

Bitstream
Jackson Burke
Bitstream
Chauncey H. Griffith
Bitstream
Robin Nicholas
Monotype 1980
Frank Hinman Pierpont and Robert Granjon
Monotype 1700
Stanley Morison
Linotype 1931
Robin Nicholas
Monotype
Albert Boton
Monotype
José Mendoza y Almeida
ITC 1991
Carl Albert Fahrenwaldt
Elsner+Flake 1929
Frederic W. Goudy
Monotype 1918
Veronika Burian and José Scaglione
TypeTogether 2011
Franko Luin
Linotype 1992
Gary Munch
Linotype 1999
Rudolf Ruzicka and Alex Kaczun
Linotype 1992
Matthew Carter and Chauncey H. Griffith
Linotype 1946
Linotype Design Studio
Linotype 1933
Martin Wilke
Linotype 1988

Elsner+Flake
Edward Benguiat
ITC 1974
Chew Loon
Elsner+Flake 1979
Johannes Birkenbach
Monotype
Linn Boyd Benton and Morris Fuller Benton
Elsner+Flake 1900
Franko Luin
Linotype 1994
Gerard Unger
Linotype 1989