Sans: Gothic/Grotesque

FontShop Team

Last edited April 30, 2014

This is the oldest sans serif style, derived from the first serifless typefaces which were nicknamed "Grotesque" by those who were accustomed to serifs. Many of these faces are sometimes called "American Gothic" due to their popularity in the states throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, though the style originated in Great Britain.

See also Wood Type: Sans Serif.

Typefaces without serifs were known in nineteenth-century England as Grotesque (or Grotesk in German) because they seemed so unusual to most readers. Monotype Grotesque font is a straightforward 1926 design that is among the earliest sans serifs cut for hot-metal machine typesetting. Its simple, clean lines make it amenable for text use, and the condensed and extended versions are useful for... Read More

News Gothic No. 2 is an enhanced version of News Gothic produced by the D. Stempel AG type foundry in 1984. It added more weights to the News Gothic family than were available in other versions, increasing its use in contemporary design and communication.The lighter weights of the original News Gothic were designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1908 for American Typefounders (ATF). News Gothic... Read More

The lighter weights of News Gothic™ were designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1908 for American Typefounders. This typeface is quite similar to Benton's other sans serifs from the early twentieth century, Franklin Gothic™ and Alternate Gothic™. The bold weights were added in 1958. The caps in News Gothic have a similar visual width to each other, and the lowercase is compact and powerful.... Read More

Similar in design to Franklin Gothic, News Gothic was one of a number of sans serif faces manufactured by American Type Founders in the early years of the twentieth century. Initially cut as a light sans, heavier versions were made in the 1940s and 50s along with some condensed weights. The News Gothic font family offers an uncomplicated design that is well suited for use in newspapers and... Read More

The first cuts of Trade Gothic were designed by Jackson Burke in 1948. He continued to work on further weights and styles until 1960 while he was director of type development for Mergenthaler-Linotype in the USA. Trade Gothic does not display as much unifying family structure as other popular sans serif font families, but this dissonance adds a bit of earthy naturalism to its appeal. Trade... Read More

Basic Commercial is a font based on historical designs from the hot metal typeface era. It first appeared around 1900, and was created by type designers whose names have not been recorded but whose skills cannot be overlooked. This typeface's design has been popular among groups and movements as diverse as the Bauhaus, Dadaism, and the masters of Swiss/International-Style typography. It... Read More

The spark behind the creation FF Hydra family came from observing 19th and early 20th century French poster lettering. Its designer Silvio Napoleone found that the styles of this period combined whimsical, economic, and impactful qualities. A typeface that incorporated these characteristics could be especially relevant to today’s design aesthetic. Naploeone began by sketching an extremely... Read More