Type Timeline
Futura 1927
A geometric sans-serif typeface designed by Paul Renner in 1927. “Futura” is a registered trademark of BaurTypes.
The first drawings for Futura were done in 1924. The typeface was finally released in 1927 in light (Mager), regular (Halbfett), and bold (Fett) weights. The family was expanded in 1930 to include a semi-bold weight, a bold condensed weight, as well as oblique versions for the light and regular (medium) weights. A book weight was added in 1932. Subsequently, the family was expanded by designers other than Renner to over twenty faces of varying weights and widths.
Gill Sans 1931
Eric Gill (1882-1940) was a versatile talent, active in many disciplines from wood-engraving to sculpture and calligraphy. In the 1920s his creative abilities turned to type design and in 1928 Gill Sans was born. The successful Gill Sans was issued by Monotype in 1928 to 1930. The roots of Gill Sans can be traced to the typeface that Gill’s teacher, Edward Johnston, designed for the signage of the London Underground Railway in 1918. Gill´s alphabet is more classical in proportion and contains what have become known as his signature flared capital R and eyeglass lowercase g. Gill Sans is a humanist sans serif with some geometric touches in its structures. It also has a distinctly British feel. Legible and modern though sometimes cheerfully idiosyncratic, the lighter weights work for text, and the bolder weights make for compelling display typography.
Originally Gill designed this typeface as an uppercase set. The lowercase characters were added in 1929 and having spent much of the 1930s developing further weights and variations, Gill Sans now represents one of his most widely used typefaces. The Pro version includes the original 17 cuts plus a few new cuts. All have been extended in glyph sets from the Standard collection.
Sans Serif:
Helvetica 1957
Helvetica was developed in 1957 by Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas’sche Schriftgiesserei (Haas type foundry) of Münchenstein, Switzerland. Haas set out to design a new sans-serif typeface that could compete with Akzidenz-Grotesk in the Swiss market. Originally called Die Neue Haas Grotesk, it was created based on Schelter-Grotesk. The aim of the new design was to create a neutral typeface that had great clarity, had no intrinsic meaning in its form, and could be used on a wide variety of signage.
Optima 1958
Although the Optima® design is almost always grouped with typefaces such as the Helvetica® and Gill Sans® designs, it should be considered a serifless roman. Compare it with typefaces like the Garamond™ and Centaur® designs, and you will find similar proportions, shapes and weight stress. Where these designs have serifs, however, Optima has a slight flaring of its stroke terminals.
The Optima typeface is a clear and precise font designed by the renowned type designer Hermann Zapf. Optima was inspired by classical Roman inscriptions and is distinguished by its flared terminals – the ends of letters. The curves and straights of the Optima fonts vary minutely in thickness to provide a graceful and clear impression to the eye.
Myriad Pro 1992
Released in 1992, the Myriad® typeface family has become a popular choice for both text and display composition. Since it was made available in a Pro character set in the OpenType® format, Myriad’s considerable reach was increased though the addition of Greek and Cyrillic glyphs, as well as old style figures. The Myriad family includes condensed, normal and extended widths in a full range of weights. Well-drawn letter proportions, clean, open shapes and extensive kerning pairs ensure that the design retains a comfortable level of readability across all of its variants.
