American gothic typeface in book9/9/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() These classic American grotesques have long been workhorse staples, and have had quite a resurgence in recent years. When the italics are added, it will be a family of eighty - even perhaps one hundred if a threatened semi-extended materializes. Van Bronkhorst has gone in the opposite direction, extending the Alternate Gothic look to ten weights, and four widths so far. All three share some design characteristics, enough that previous designers adding condensed styles to the other typefaces have relied on the letterforms of Alternate Gothic for guidance - but without keeping its most distinctive feature: straight-sided “pillbox” rounds for letters such as ‘b, c, d, e, g, o, p’. The original was one of several classic American grotesques designed by Benton, along with the noticeably similar designs Franklin Gothic (1903–10) and News Gothic (1908). Van Bronkhorst and others suggest it likely got its name from the then-innovative idea of a typeface with the same style and weight in coordinated varying widths, which could be used together or alternated. ![]() *Īlternate Gothic was first released in 1903, the work of ATF’s prolific in-house designer, Morris Fuller Benton. This 2015 edition not only revives a fabulous classic American typestyle, but a classic American foundry as well: American Type Founders, or “ATF”. ATF Alternate Gothic is a masterful revision in more than forty styles (ten weights and four widths, plus italics coming soon) of a century-old typeface that has been interpreted many times. ![]()
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