Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk Light Condensed
Akzidenz-Grotesk Date released 1898 (?) Akzidenz-Grotesk is a family originally released by the of. Akzidenz means a 'commercial' typeface for trade printing such as publicity, tickets and forms, as opposed to typefaces intended for decorative or book use. Originating during the late nineteenth century, Akzidenz-Grotesk belongs to a tradition of general-purpose, unadorned sans serif types known as that had become dominant in German printing during the nineteenth century, and became one of the most popular examples of this style. Its simple, neutral design has influenced many later faces and became commonly used and influential as an element of the popular of the 1950s and 1960s. It has sometimes been sold as Standard or Basic Commercial in English-speaking countries.
Digital variants of Akzidenz-Grotesk, showing the slight inconsistencies and idiosyncrasies between different weights and widths. Like most sans-serifs, Akzidenz-Grotesk is 'monoline' in structure, with all strokes of the letter of similar width. This gives a sense of simplicity and an absence of the adornment and seen in many more decorative sans-serifs of the late nineteenth century influenced by the style. Modern type designer has described the general design of Akzidenz-Grotesk and its ancestors as similar in letterforms to the serif fonts that were standard printing types in the nineteenth century, such as, and their followers. This is most visible in the quite folded-up of letters such as ‘a’ and ‘c’. The capitals of Akzidenz-Grotesk are wide and relatively uniform in width.
Abel is a modern interpretation of the condensed flat-sided sans serif. Originally used for newspaper headlines and posters, this style can also be used.
Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk Light Condensed
The 'g' of Akzidenz-Grotesk is a 'single-storey' design, like in many other German sans-serifs, but unlike the double-storey 'g' found in most serif faces and in many of the earliest sans-serifs that had a lower-case. Describes this as a common feature in German sans-serifs of the period and influenced by the tradition of, which uses a single-story 'g' in upright composition.
Blackletter was still for general-purpose use in Germany in the nineteenth century. As is normal in typefaces cut during the metal type period, Akzidenz-Grotesk shows variation between sizes of metal type, with adaptation of letter-spacing and proportions to different sizes. In addition, there is variation between weights: notes that even comparing one size (20pt), the medium and bold weights have different, cap height and descender length to the light and regular weights. This is common with nineteenth-century sans-serifs, which were often not designed with the intention of forming an extended family that would match together. The differences in proportions between different sizes and weights of Akzidenz-Grotesk has led to a range of contemporary adaptations, reviving or modifying different aspects of the original design. A German banknote from 1918, showing Akzidenz-Grotesk or a similar design.
The influences, sources and of Akzidenz-Grotesk are not fully known, although it descends from a school of general-purpose sans-serifs cut in the nineteenth century. Research is complicated by the very large number of type foundries active in Germany during this period. Sans-serifs had become very popular in Germany by the late nineteenth century, with many type foundries offering different versions. Berthold literature from the 1920s dated the design to 1898. It was claimed by Berthold's post-war artistic director that a key source of Akzidenz-Grotesk was types from the Ferdinand Theinhardt type foundry. This was owned by businessman and Ferdinand Theinhardt, who was otherwise particularly famous for his scholarly endeavours in the field of and typefaces. Professor Indra Kupferschmid, who has researched the early use of sans-serifs in Germany, however reports that this cannot be a full explanation of the family's history: 'there must have been an Accidenz-Grotesk at Berthold before the acquisition of Theinhardt’s foundry in 1908.'
(Early references to Akzidenz-Grotesk at Berthold often use the alternative spelling 'Accidenz-Grotesk'. ) According to Eckehart Schumacher-Gebler and Kupferschmid, a likely source for some styles of Akzidenz-Grotesk is Berthold's 1897 purchase of the Bauer Foundry of Stuttgart (not to be confused with the much better-known of Frankfurt) and confusion may have occurred with fonts held by Berthold that the Theinhardt foundry licensed. Kupferschmid concludes that the design appears to be based on or related to an 1895 shadowed sans-serif ('Schattierte Grotesk') sold by the Bauer Foundry. Some early adverts that co-present Akzidenz-Grotesk are signed by both foundries. Dan Reynolds additionally suggests that the name Akzidenz-Grotesk may have been intended as a following on from an 'Accidenz-Gothisch' face sold by the Bauer & Co. The light weight of Akzidenz-Grotesk was for many years branded separately as 'Royal-Grotesk'; it was said in the post-war period that it was commissioned by the, but Kupferschmid again reports being unable to find it used in its publications.
It apparently was cut by Berthold around 1902-3, when it was announced in a trade periodical as “a new, quite usable typeface” and advertised as having matching dimensions allowing it to be combined with the regular weight of Akzidenz-Grotesk. Many other grotesques in a similar style to Akzidenz-Grotesk were sold in Germany during this period. Around the beginning of the twentieth century, these increasingly began to be branded as larger families of multiple matched styles. Its competitors included the very popular of the, very similar to Akzidenz-Grotesk but with high-waisted capitals, and Koralle by, which has a single-storey 'a'. ( also is based on German typefaces of this period. ) Seeman's Handbuch der Schriftarten illustrates the wide range of sans-serif typefaces on sale in Germany by the time of its publication in 1926. By around 1911, Berthold had begun to market Akzidenz-Grotesk as a complete family.
While apparently not unpopular, Akzidenz-Grotesk was not among the most intensively-marketed typefaces of the period, and was not even particularly aggressively marketed by Berthold. A 1921 Berthold specimen and company history almost apologetically described it in this way: 'In 1898 Accidenz-Grotesk was created, which has earned a laurel wreath of fame for itself. This old typeface, which these days one would perhaps make in a more modern style, has a peculiar life in its own way which would probably be lost if it were to be altered. All the many imitations of Accidenz-Grotesk have not matched its character.' Mid-twentieth-century use. A 1969 poster exemplifying the trend of the 1950s and 60s: solid red colour, simplified images and the use of a grotesque face.
This design, by Robert Geisser, appears to use Helvetica. The use of Akzidenz-Grotesk and similar 'grotesque' typefaces dipped from the late 1920s due to the arrival of fashionable new such as, and, based on the proportions of the circle and square. Berthold released its own family in this style, Berthold-Grotesk. In the post-war period and particularly in Switzerland a revival in Akzidenz-Grotesk's popularity took hold, in what became known as the 'Swiss International Style' of graphic design. This style often contrasted Akzidenz-Grotesk with photographic art, and did not use as much as many older posters. Graphic designers of this style such as found the sans-serifs of the nineteenth-century more 'neutral' and even than the more 'personal' recent sans-serifs of the previous decades.
Eskilson's Graphic Design: A New History comments that they 'conveyed the functionalist ethos without appearing too stylised.in the manner of the more geometrically pure types.' The arrival of Akzidenz-Grotesk for composition was an illustration of the renaissance of popularity for grotesque sans-serifs in the late 1950s. Akzidenz-Grotesk was popular in this period although other typefaces such as were used also: a problem with use of Akzidenz-Grotesk up to the late 1950s was that it was only available in for handsetting. While this was acceptable for posters, by the 1950s machines had become the main system for printing general-purpose body text, and for this system Akzidenz-Grotesk was unavailable until around 1958, when it was first sold on Linotype and then in 1960 on Intertype systems. Much printing around this time of body text accordingly used Monotype Grotesque as a lookalike.
In the United States, Akzidenz-Grotesk was imported by Amsterdam Continental Types under the name 'Standard'. In 1957, three notable competitors of Akzidenz-Grotesk appeared intended to compete with its growing popularity: from the Haas foundry, with a very high and a strong image with tight letterspacing, from, with a large range of weights and widths, and from Bauer. Suggests that Helvetica 'began to muscle out' Akzidenz-Grotesk in New York from around summer 1965, when Amsterdam Continental's marketing stopped pushing Standard strongly and began to focus on Helvetica instead.
By the 1960s, Berthold could claim in its type specimens that Akzidenz-Grotesk was: a type series which has proved itself in practice for more than 70 years and has held its ground to the present day against all comers.wherever one sees graphics and advertising of an international standard.starting a revival in Switzerland in recent years, Akzidenz-Grotesk has progressed all over the world and impressed its image in the typography of our time. Post-metal releases With the end of mass use of metal type, Akzidenz-Grotesk has been rereleased and adapted in versions for the new and digital technologies. Contemporary versions of Akzidenz-Grotesk descend from a late-1950s project, directed by at Berthold, to enlarge the typeface family, adding a larger character set and range of styles, but retaining idiosyncrasies.
This added new styles including AG Extra (1958), AG Extra Bold (1966) and AG Super (1968), AG Super Italic (2001) and Extra Bold italic (2001). Separately, and other designers at his company GGK Basel launched a project in the 1960s to build Akzidenz-Grotesk into a coherent series, to match the new families appearing in the same style; it was used by Berthold for its Diatype system in the late 60s under the name of 'Gerstner-Programm' but according to Lange it was never fully released.
The current holder of the Berthold rights is Berthold Types of Chicago, following H. Berthold AG's bankruptcy in 1993. Berthold released Akzidenz-Grotesk in format in 2006, under the name Akzidenz-Grotesk Pro, and added matching Cyrillic and Greek characters the next year. Unofficial digitisations have been made by other companies under alternative names. Distinctive characteristics.
The letterforms of Akzidenz-Grotesk show a “folded-up” structure with narrow, similar to serif typefaces popular in Europe at the time, such as the work of., a design intended for maximum legibility, shows a much more open design. Twentieth-century neo-grotesques such as intensify the effect by making almost all terminals horizontal or vertical. Characteristics of this typeface are: lower case: A 'folded-up' structure with narrow and strokes curled up towards the vertical, most obvious on letters such as c, e, s and a. Stroke endings are though less consistently horizontal or vertical than in. A square dot over the letter i. Double story a, single-storey g.
Upper case: G with a vertical spur. A dropped horizontal stroke on A. The capitals are wide and have relatively little variation in width, with letters like 'E' and 'F' quite wide. The 'M' is straight-sided with the diagonals meeting in the bottom centre of the letter. Capitals in several weights have very noticeably thicker strokes than the lower-case. On many but not all styles a straight leg on the 'R' and a 'Q' where the outstroke does not cut through the letter.
Number: A top serif on the 1 and in some styles a downward-pointing serif on the top left of the 7. Like most grotesque sans-serifs, Akzidenz-Grotesk's slanted form is an rather than a. This means that the letters are slanted without using handwriting forms. It is important to note, however, that many weights of Akzidenz-Grotesk in the metal type period did not have sloped forms, and as the weights and sizes of Akzidenz-Grotesk were cut separately not all these features will appear on all styles. Popular for poster setting, Akzidenz-Grotesk's bold weight has always been one of the best-known members of the family. Berthold's Akzidenz-Grotesk family by the late metal type period included, with German names:.
Akzidenz-Grotesk (Regular weight, available on Linotype in modified form as series 57 with ). Halbfett (Medium, available on Linotype in modified form as series 58 and as poster type).
Mager (Light, sometimes sold as Royal-Grotesk). Fett (Bold, available as poster type).
Schmalmager (Light Condensed). Eng (Regular Condensed). Schmalhalbfett (Medium Condensed, sometimes called 'Steinschrift eng', 'R' has curled leg ). The regular weight of Akzidenz-Grotesk had a lower x-height than.
Several other type designers modelled typefaces from this popular typeface. At the Haas Foundry used it as a model for the typeface Neue Haas-Grotesk, released in 1957 and renamed in 1961. Miedinger sought to refine the typeface making it more even and unified, with a higher x-height and tighter spacing. Two other releases from 1957, and Bauer and Baum's, take inspiration from Akzidenz-Grotesk. Akzidenz-Grotesk is sometimes at first glance mistaken for the or typefaces. The similarities of Helvetica and Akzidenz-Grotesk are apparent, but the subtle differences include the and C and the uppercase G, J, R and Q.
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Aside from the subtle differences in these individual letters, Miedinger's primary change to Akzidenz-Grotesk is Helvetica's higher x-height, the distance from the baseline to the height of the lowercase letter x, and the consistently horizontal terminals. The general effect is that Helvetica appears more oblong while Akzidenz-Grotesk maintains circular counters and bowls. Both Helvetica and Univers are more regular and have a greater consistency of stroke weight and details, for instance unifying all or most strokes to terminate on horizontals or verticals. The Swiss digital type foundry Optimo has released an alternative interpretation of Akzidenz-Grotesk named 'Theinhardt'. Has praised this as 'the best' Akzidenz-Grotesk digitisation. Spiekermann has also released with Ralph du Carrois a very loose digitsation of Akzidenz Grotesk, FF Real, in two, with variant features like a two-storey 'g' and.
In the US, Akzidenz-Grotesk was available under the name ‘Standard’., which started to sell Akzidenz-Grotesk on its hot metal typesetting system in the 1950s, continues to sell a limited digital version under the other common alternative name, 'Basic Commercial', and a two-weight version named 'Gothic 725'. Much more loosely, the typeface used on British road signs, was designed by and influenced by Akzidenz-Grotesk.
However, many adaptations and letters influenced by other typefaces were incorporated to increase legibility and make characters more distinct. 'Akzidenz-Grotesk' (Haas). Main article: A completely different 'Akzidenz-Grotesk' was made by the of Switzerland. Also named 'Accidenz-Grotesk' and 'Normal-Grotesk', it had a more condensed, 'boxy' design.
Indra Kupferschmid, an expert on German and Swiss printing history, describes it as a “reworking of “Neue Moderne Grotesk”, originally ca. 1909 by Wagner & Schmidt, Leipzig. Initially issued by Haas under the name “Accidenz-Grotesk”, later spelled “Akzidenz-Grotesk” but 1943 revised and renamed “Normal-Grotesk” to prevent confusion with Berthold's Akzidenz-Grotesk.” The Haas Foundry created (then called “Neue Haas Grotesk”) due to its decline in popularity in competition with Berthold's design. Notable users.
Standard on a 1960 jazz album Akzidenz-Grotesk and Georgia are the official fonts of the American Red Cross. Akzidenz-Grotesk is used on the national logo and national guidelines require the font to be used on all chapter logos. All American Red Cross publications must be printed in Akzidenz-Grotesk or Georgia fonts. Akzidenz-Grotesk is also the font used in Arizona State University brand logo; in extra bold italic form, used in the for the driver's surname placed on the windshield of the race cars; and in light condensed form, used in the ' logo. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Akzidenz-Grotesk was used heavily on 's on-screen graphics. Berthold sued for copyright infringement and breach of contract in 2017, alleging that Target had asked a design firm to use the font in a promotional video without a license.
See also. Notes. Sans-serif types first appeared in London, but became extremely popular in Germany, where typefounders were more enthusiastic about the design, and more likely to offer sans-serifs that had a lower-case and with proportions for extended text. Berthold literature from the 1900s marketed these two weights (light at the time under the name of 'Royal-Grotesk' as being compatible. According to Kupferschmid, Ideal-Grotesk, a separate sans-serif face Berthold sold in the first half of the twentieth century, is a Venus knockoff, possibly made by electrotype copying. Berthold-Grotesk is somewhat less well-known than other German geometrics of the period.
A licensed adaptation (changing some characters) by the Amsterdam Type Foundry under the name of, however, became a popular standard typeface in Dutch printing. Note also that some twentieth-century sources used different terminology to distinguish between the traditional 'grotesques/gothics' and the new faces of the 1920s, such as restricting the term 'sans-serifs' to the latter group.
The term 'industrial' has also been used for the early grotesque sans-serifs like Akzidenz-Grotesk. Date according to Helvetica Forever and Ulrich Stiehl shows Linotype sales material saying that it was 'taken over to the Linotype machine' in 1958, although Eskilson reports 1959 for its release. This image shows a later revival of Walbaum's work; during the early nineteenth century figures in roman type were customarily of variable height. An alternative 'R' with curled leg was available by request. An alternative 'R' with curled leg was available by request.
So you can still go buy last year’s model at a discount and get Windows 8 for a pittance. NewTELnet 9200.
Ulrich Stiehl suggests that this may have been one of the last additions to the metal type family: it does not appear in a 1959 advert or Berthold's Hauptprobe Nr. 470, but it does in the slightly later Schriftprobe Nr. 473, which he suggests dates from c.
A less folded-up 'a' and 'g' and a narrower 'r' were available by request. A less folded-up 'a' and 'g' and a narrower 'r' were available by request.
References. Fellici, James. The Complete Manual of Typography. Adobe Press: 2002. Fiedl, Frederich, Nicholas Ott and Bernard Stein.
Typography: An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Through History. Black Dog & Leventhal: 1998. Kane, John. A type primer. Prentice Hall: 2002.
Macmillan, Neil. An A–Z of Type Designers. Yale University Press: 2006. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to.
Berthold pages:,. digitised by Ulrich Stiehl.
Fonts in Use coverage:, (for American uses). (c. 1960 specimen, photographed by Stephen Coles/Thomas Maier). (1980s Berthold specimen, for phototypesetting).
Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk Free
not showing Akzidenz-Grotesk. The advert showcases 'modern and successful' faces, illustrating the eclipse of Akzidenz-Grotesk in this period. announcing the arrival of Akzidenz-Grotesk on the Linotype hot metal system.