The Anatomy of Type

Stephen Coles

• Publisher: Harper
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780062203113
• Topic: Design
• Subtopic: Typography

The Anatomy of Type is the ultimate stylistic guide to the intricacies and design of 100 indispensable typefaces. A delightful, colorful, and visual reference guide created by Stephen Coles and Tony Seddon—two acknowledged pros in the font design world— The Anatomy of Type was developed with typographers, graphic designers, and font geeks in mind, graphically and visually expanding on the current font-mania initiated by Simon Garfields's Just My Type.

Geometric Sans

Futura ND

Avenir

Gotham

ITC Avant Grade Gothic

Calibra/Metric

FF DIN

Interstate

Verlag

Klavika

MVB Solano Gothic

Forza

Futura ND

Designer: (Paul Renner) Marie-Therésè Koreman // Foundry: (Bauer Type Foundry) Neufville // Country of origin: (Germany) Spain // Release years: (1927) 1999–2012 // Classification: Geometric Sans

Futura has become widely known as the prototypical Geometric typeface. Bauhaus experiments in geometric form led Paul Renner to develop a typeface that was initially made entirely of straight lines and circular shapes. This was eventually tamed into more conventional letterforms, but they remained mostly Geometric. Futura’s capitals are based on classical proportions, explaining their variable widths. There are countless digital versions, but Futura ND comes directly from original sources, and the latest release includes alternatives previously unavailable. Caution: the protrusion of pointed apexes (“M,” “N,” “w”) is called “overshoot,” an optical compensation for type intended for Text sizes, but potentially distracting when large.

Avenir

Designer: Adrian Frutiger // Foundry: Linotype, Germany // Country of origin: France, Germany Release year: 1988 // Classification: Geometric Sans

“Right from the beginning, I was convinced that Avenir is the better Futura,” said a confident Adrian Frutiger in a recent interview looking back at his 1988 creation. In some respects, his declaration was more than mere boasting — coming 60 years after Futura, Avenir remedied many of the compromises that Renner made in his quest for geometry. Frutiger abandoned pure circles and strictly even stroke weight for “corrected” curves and a bit of contrast. Letter widths are more regular, the x-height is larger, and a double-story “a” replaces the less legible single-story one. Avenir retains the simplicity and clarity of a Geometric sans serif; it just does it more gracefully, sacrificing graphical purity for readability. Good for: Comfortable geometric type.

Gotham

Designer: Tobias Frere-Jones // Foundry: Hoefler & Frere-Jones // Country of origin: United States Release year: 2000 // Classification: Geometric Sans

One can’t really describe this Hoefler & Frere-Jones creation better than H&FJ themselves: “Gotham. What letters look like.” The typeface is simply self-evident. Each character just feels “normal” and “right.” Inspired by mid-century architectural lettering of New York City, Gotham celebrates the alphabet’s most ...