Akzidenz-Grotesk

Akzidenz-Grotesk is a grotesque (early sans-serif) typeface originally released by the H. Berthold AG type foundry in 1898 under the name Accidenz-Grotesk.[1] It was the first sans serif typeface to be widely used and influenced many later neo-grotesque typefaces. It was obviously based on faces already offered by other foundries, some of which were later taken over by Berthold. It was mainly a marketing and naming success. It was used as a text font in Europe, especially Switzerland, until being supplanted by Univers and Helvetica, although in recent years it has made a comeback.The design of Akzidenz-Grotesk was theorized to be derived from Walbaum or Didot, as demonstrated by the similar font metrics when the serifs are removed.[2] However, the font family also included fonts made by other foundries, such as the c. 1880 typeface Royal Grotesk Light from the Berlin foundry Ferdinand Theinhardt Schriftgiesserei[3], designed by Ferdinand Theinhardt for the scientific publications of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin. FTS also supplied the regular, medium and bold weights of the typeface. While Hermann Berthold took over Theinhardt's Berlin foundry in 1908, it wasn't until the fall of the Prussian monarchy in 1918 that Royal Grotesk was published as part of the Akzidenz-Grotesk font family and renamed Akzidenz-Grotesk Condensed.[4]
Contemporary versions of Akzidenz-Grotesk descend from a late-1950s project, directed by Günter Gerhard Lange at Berthold, to enlarge the typeface family, adding a larger character set, but retaining all of the idiosyncrasies of the 1898 face. Under the direction of Günter Gerhard Lange, he had designed 33 font styles to the Akzidenz-Grotesk family, including AG Extra (1958), AG Extra Bold (1966) and AG Super (1968), AG Super Italic (2001) and Extra Bold italic (2001).[5]
In May 2006, Berthold announced the release of Akzidenz-Grotesk in OpenType format, under the name Akzidenz-Grotesk Pro. The Pro family offers extended language support for Central European, Baltic and Turkish as well as Welsh, archaic Danish and Esperanto and is available in CFF PostScript OpenType. Berthold also released Akzidenz-Grotesk Standard, which includes glyphs of Western European character set, in both PostScript and TrueType flavored OpenType.[6]In May 2007 Berthold announced the release of Akzidenz-Grotesk Pro+, which includes Cyrillic and Greek characters.[7]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.[8]
Akzidenz-Grotesk is sometimes at first glance mistaken for the Helvetica or Univers typefaces. The similarities of Helvetica and Akzidenz-Grotesk are apparent, but the subtle differences include the uppercase and lowercase C and the uppercase G, J, R and Q. 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. 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.

San Serif Fonts:
In typography, a sans-serif or sans serif typeface is one that does not have the small features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. The term comes from the Latin word "sine", via the French word sans, meaning "without".
In print, sans-serif fonts are more typically used for headlines than for body text.[1] The conventional wisdom holds that serifs help guide the eye along the lines in large blocks of text. Sans-serifs, however, have acquired considerable acceptance for body text in Europe.
Sans-serif fonts have become the de facto standard for body text on-screen, especially online. This is partly because interlaced displays may show twittering on the fine details of the horizontal serifs. Additionally, the low resolution of digital displays in general can make fine details like serifs disappear or appear too large.Sans-serif letter forms can be found in Latin, Etruscan, and Greek inscriptions, for as early as 5th century BC.[2] The sans serif forms had been used on stoichedon Greek inscriptions.Bytheir nature, San Serif typefaces have strong geometrical form. That aspectof this category can make it more tiring for a person to read large blocks oftext set in a San Serif face. With careful techniques this can be avoided. Adjustleading and use the right weights that are designed for reading paragraphs, usually referred to as roman or normal weight. San Serif fonts are versatileand multitudes of weights and widths make them flexible.
Sans-serif fonts are the most appropriate family for use online, as their simpler letter-forms remain readable at low resolutions; whereas serif fonts need more pixels to display their extra details. Sans-serif fonts are also well-suited to headings, as they are easily readable from a distance.Well-known sans-serif fonts include Helvetica (known as Arial on Windows), Trebuchet MS, Lucida Grande, and the ever-popular Verdana. All of these fonts are clean and will usually work well even at small sizes. Below is an example of text set in Trebuchet MS:Pairing a sans-serif font like Verdana for headings with a serif font like Georgia for body text will often look very attractive.
Grotesque:
The word "Grotesque", or "Grotesk" in German, is also frequently used as a synonym for sans-serif in typography. At other times, it is used (along with "Neo-Grotesque", "Humanist", "Lineal", and "Geometric") to describe a particular style or subset of sans-serif typefaces. The origin of this association can be traced back to English typefounder William Thorowgood, who first introduced the term "grotesque" and in 1835 produced 7-line pica grotesque—the first sans-serif typeface containing actual lowercase letters. An alternate etymology is possibly based on the original reaction of other typographers to such a strikingly featureless typeface.[11]













Works Cited

Bringhurst, Robert. The Elements of Typographic Style. Hartley & Marks: 1992

Macmillan, Neil. An A–Z of Type Designers. Yale University Press: 2006.

Williams, Robin The Non-Designer's Type Book : Insights and Techniques for Creating Professional-Level Type

The Sans Serif Typefaces. Linotype GmbH.