AKZIDENZ GROTESK

'Akzidenz Grotesk' is a realist sans-serif typeface originally released by the H. Berthold AG type foundry in 1898. It was the first sans serif typeface to be widely used an influenced many later typefaces such as Adrian Frutiger's 1957 typeface Univers, and Bauer and Baum's Folio. Especially Max Miedinger at the Haas Foundry used it as a model for their typeface Neue Haas Grotesk 1957, in 1960 named Helvetica, but sought to refine the typeface making it more even and unified.
Contemporary versions of Akzidenz Grotesk descend from an 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. Some new weights, condensed and extended widths were released under the title Standard.

Contents

Similarities to other typefaces

References

External links

Similarities to other typefaces

Akzidenz is sometimes at first glance mistaken for the Helvetica or Univers typefaces. The similarities of Helvetica and Akzidenz 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 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 maintains circular counters and bowls. Both Helvetica and Univers are more regular and have a greater consistency of stroke weight.
Linotype sells a version of Akzidenz under the name "Basic Commercial". This is based on Linotype's digitization of the typeface, which is also sold under the Akzidenz name by various foundries; Linotype use a different name for trademark reasons.^[1]

References

1. Thread on Typophile containing Linotype's official explanation of the origin of Basic Commercial, in response to an accusation of forgery.


★ The Elements of Typographic Style, , Robert, Bringhurst, , ,

★ The Complete Manual of Typography, , James, Fellici, , ,

★ Berthold Fonts

★ Fiedl, Frederich, Nicholas Ott and Bernard Stein. ''Typography: An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Through History.'' Black Dog & Leventhal: 1998. ISBN 1-57912-023-7.

★ Macmillan, Neil. ''An A–Z of Type Designers.'' Yale University Press: 2006. ISBN 0-300-11151-7.

External links

★ Typowiki: Akzidenz Grotesk

★ An "ode" to Akzidenz Grotesk on YouTube