FONTS - Franklin Gothic

The London Sign Writer Nick Garrett



Long over shadowed by Gill sans and Helvetica, Franklin Gothic is now making a comeback.



Its slightly grave graphic profile and retro appeal is now creating a cool option for type setters, designers and creatives.




History

Franklin Gothic and its related faces are realist sans-serif typefaces originated by Morris Fuller Benton (1872–1948) in 1902. “Gothic” is an increasingly archaic term meaning sans-serif. 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. Despite a period of eclipse in the 1930s, after the introduction of such European faces as Kabel and Futura, they were re-discovered by American designers in the 1940s and have remained popular ever since.



In 1979, under license with ATF, Vic Caruso began work on more weights of the design for ITC. This version adheres closely to the subtle thick and thin pattern of the original design; the slightly enlarged x-height and condensed proportions of the new version result in greater economy of space. This typeface is a standard choice for use in newspapers and advertising. In 1991, David Berlow completed the family for ITC by creating compressed and condensed weights. ITC Franklin Gothic Compressed is designed especially to solve impossibly tight copyfitting problems, while maintaining high legibility standards. ITC Franklin Condensed provides medium weights of narrow proportions. It is frequently seen in newspapers, advertisements, posters, and any place with space restrictions.



Menu Names And Style Linking

In many Windows® applications, instead of every font appearing on the menu, fonts are grouped into style-linked sets, and only the name of the base style font for a set is shown in the menu. The italic and the bold weight fonts of the set (if any) are not shown in the font menu, but can still be accessed by selecting the base style font, and then using the italic and bold style buttons. In this family, such programs will show only the following base style font names in the menu:

ITC Franklin Gothic Std Bk Cd
ITC Franklin Gothic Std Bk Cp
ITC Franklin Gothic Std Bk XCp
ITC Franklin Gothic Std Book
ITC Franklin Gothic Std Heavy
ITC Franklin Gothic Std Med
ITC Franklin Gothic Std MedCd

The other fonts in this family must be selected by choosing a menu name and then a style option following the guide below.

Menu Name		plus Style Option...		selects this font
ITC Franklin Gothic Std Bk Cd		[none]		ITC Franklin Gothic Std Book Condensed
ITC Franklin Gothic Std Bk Cd		Italic		ITC Franklin Gothic Std Book Condensed Italic
ITC Franklin Gothic Std Bk Cd		Bold		ITC Franklin Gothic Std Demi Condensed
ITC Franklin Gothic Std Bk Cd		Bold, Italic		ITC Franklin Gothic Std Demi Condensed Italic
ITC Franklin Gothic Std Bk Cp		[none]		ITC Franklin Gothic Std Book Compressed
ITC Franklin Gothic Std Bk Cp		Italic		ITC Franklin Gothic Std Book Compressed Italic
ITC Franklin Gothic Std Bk Cp		Bold		ITC Franklin Gothic Std Demi Compressed
ITC Franklin Gothic Std Bk Cp		Bold, Italic		ITC Franklin Gothic Std Demi Compressed Italic
ITC Franklin Gothic Std Bk XCp		[none]		ITC Franklin Gothic Std Book Extra Compressed
ITC Franklin Gothic Std Bk XCp		Bold		ITC Franklin Gothic Std Demi Extra Compressed
ITC Franklin Gothic Std Book		[none]		ITC Franklin Gothic Std Book
ITC Franklin Gothic Std Book		Italic		ITC Franklin Gothic Std Book Italic
ITC Franklin Gothic Std Book		Bold		ITC Franklin Gothic Std Demi
ITC Franklin Gothic Std Book		Bold, Italic		ITC Franklin Gothic Std Demi Italic
ITC Franklin Gothic Std Heavy		[none]		ITC Franklin Gothic Std Heavy
ITC Franklin Gothic Std Heavy		Italic		ITC Franklin Gothic Std Heavy Italic
ITC Franklin Gothic Std Med		[none]		ITC Franklin Gothic Std Medium
ITC Franklin Gothic Std Med		Italic		ITC Franklin Gothic Std Medium Italic
ITC Franklin Gothic Std MedCd		[none]		ITC Franklin Gothic Std Medium Condensed
ITC Franklin Gothic Std MedCd		Italic		ITC Franklin Gothic Std Medium Condensed Italic

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