Franklin Gothic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Typeface | Franklin Gothic |
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| Category | Sans-serif |
| Designer(s) | Morris Fuller Benton |
| Foundry | American Type Founders (ATF) (source), International Typeface Corporation |
Franklin Gothic is a realist sans-serif typeface designed by Morris Fuller Benton (1872–1948) in 1902. The typeface is one of over 200 typefaces designed by Benton. There is an assumption that this typeface was named after Benjamin Franklin. “Gothic” is an increasingly archaic term meaning sans-serif, which is found primarily in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The larger family, including condensed and extra condensed, was designed and released over the period of 1902–1912.
Franklin Gothic was originally designed as a typeface with a single weight and only two variations in width. Franklin Gothic has been used in many advertisements and headlines in newspapers. The typeface continues to maintain a high profile appearing in a variety of media from books to billboards.
Franklin Gothic has an extra bold weight with a combination of subtle irregularities, tapering of strokes near junctions, in its roman form. Franklin Gothic has several widths and weights including Franklin Gothic book, medium, demi, heavy, condensed, and extra condensed. Victor Caruso drew the multi-weight family for the International Typeface Corporation (ITC) in 1980. Caruso’s redrawing of Franklin Gothic for ITC consist of a slightly enlarged x-height and a moderately condensed lowercase alphabet. Other characteristics of this typeface consist of organic features that distinguish it from the geometric sans serifs.
In 2004-9-30, ITC announced it and The Font Bureau Inc. were working on a multi-phase project to update and enlarge the ITC Franklin Gothic typeface family. The expanded product would be available in 2005, re-branded as the ITC Franklin family. Despite the plan, the Gothic name was never dropped.
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[edit] Characteristics
Franklin Gothic can be distinguished from other sans serif typefaces, as it has a more traditional double-story g. Other main distinguishing characteristics are the tail of the Q and the ear of the g. The tail of the Q curls down from the bottom center of the letterform in the book weight and shifts slightly to the right in the bolder fonts.
[edit] Availability
Digital versions of Franklin Gothic fonts have been produced by many foundries, such as URW (as URW Franklin Gothic), International Typeface Corporation (as ITC Franklin Gothic, ITC Franklin), Adobe (as Franklin Gothic, Franklin Gothic Std), Monotype Imaging (as Monotype Franklin Gothic).
[edit] Microsoft products
Franklin Gothic that are shipped with Microsoft products are based on ITC Franklin Gothic.
Franklin Gothic version 1 is distributed with Microsoft Office since Office 97 SR1a. Distributed fonts include Book, Book Italic, Demi, Demi Cond, Demi Italic, Heavy, Heavy Italic, Medium, Medium Cond, Medium Italic. Version 2 of the fonts are shipped with Microsoft Office 2003.
Version 2 of Franklin Gothic Book, Book Italic, Demi, Demi Italic, Medium Cond are found in Microsoft Works 2002.
Windows XP includes Franklin Gothic Medium and Franklin Gothic Medium Italic version 2.20. Windows Vista include version 5 of the fonts.
[edit] Usage
- New York University lists Franklin Gothic as an official font.[1]
- The Franklin Gothic font was used heavily on the PBS series The Electric Company.
- Franklin Gothic is the official typeface of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
- Franklin Gothic is the official typeface of the UK’s Labour Party.
- The film Rocky's title is Franklin Gothic Heavy.
- The computer game You Don't Know Jack.
- Cardiff University, one of the World's top 100 Universities (as noted in The Times Higher Education Supplement 2008), uses Franklin Gothic as its main corporate typeface.
- Franklin Gothic Condensed was the typeface used in the opening title credit roll of the Star Wars films.[2]
- Intertitle during commercials on 1980s Nickelodeon (TV channel)
[edit] References
- Baines, Phil, Hastam, Andrew (2005). Type and Typography. Watson-Guptill Publications. ISBN 0-8230-5528-0.
- Lawson, Alexander S. (1990). Anatomy of a Typeface. Godine. ISBN 978-0879233334.
- Meggs, Phillip B. (2002). Revival of the fittest. RC Publications, Inc. ISBN 1-883915-08-2.
