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Bennington College
ComputerScience
r1.30 - 07 Apr 2006 - 12:30 - JoeHolt
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THE FONTS

It occurs to me that I really don’t want to be staring at A-Z in two hundred different typefaces (or The quick brown fox or Now is the time or handgloves or ...). For our font identification quizzes let's try to collect real-world examples.

For the convenience of maintaining this list let's keep it alphabetical. Eventually, however, it would be better to arrange it along a more meaningful continuum: chronologically, by category, etc.

  • Arial - Robin Nicholas, Patricia Saunders, 1982. Commissioned by Microsoft as a cheap immitation of Helvetica.
  • Avant Garde.
  • Baskerville - John Baskerville, 1757.
  • Bell Centenial - Matthew Carter. Used by AT&T in the phone book.
  • Bell Gothic. Previously used in the phone book. Replaced by Bell Centenial.
  • Bembo - Francesco Griffo, 1495.
  • Böcklin - Otto Weisert, 1904.
  • Bodoni - Giambattista Bodoni, 1780.
  • Bookman - Alexander Phemister, 1860.
  • Caslon - William Caslon, 1722.
  • Century Gothic - based on Twentieth Century by Sol Hess, mid-1900s.
  • Chicago - Susan Kare, 1984.
  • Courier - Howard "Bud" Kettler, 1955.
  • DIN Schriften - (Deutsche Industrie-Norm) Linotype.
  • Egyptian - Christian Schwartz. Used in the Guardian newspaper.
  • Eurostile - Aldo Novarese, 1952.
  • Farnham - Christian Schwartz. Used in the art magazine Frieze.
  • Frutiger - Adrian Frutiger, 1976.
  • Futura - Paul Renner, 1927.
  • Galliard - Matthew Carter.
  • Garamond - Claude Garamond, 1532.
  • Geneva.
  • Georgia - Matthew Carter. Designed to be legible at small screen sizes.
  • Gill Sans - Eric Gill, 1928.
  • Gotham - Tobias Frere-Jones.
  • Goudy Old Style - Frederic Goudy, 1915.
  • Helvetica - Max Miedinger, 1957.
  • Interstate - Tobias Frere-Jones.
  • Janson - Herman Zapf, 1954, based on Nicholas Kis, 1690.
  • Lucida - Charles Bigelow, Kris Holmes.
  • Minion - Robert Slimbach, 1992.
  • Monaco.
  • Motter Tektura - Othmar Motter, 1975.
  • Mrs Eaves - Zuzana Licko, late 1990s.
  • Myriad - Carol Twombly and Robert Slimbach, 1993.
  • Myriad Tilt - Carol Twombly and Joe Holt, 1994.
  • New Century Schoolbook - Linn Boyd Benton, 1894 (Morris F. Benton, 1918; Linotype, 1980).
  • New York.
  • Optima.
  • Palatino - Herman Zapf, 1950.
  • Papyrus - Chris Costello, 1983. Papyrus™ is a roman calligraphic typeface with distinctive human touches like rough edges, irregular curves, and high horizontal strokes in the caps. It imparts a warm and friendly ambience to everything from restaurant menus to book covers. American Chris Costello created the popular font Papyrus in 1983 and counts it as one of his proudest accomplishments. In addition to designing type, Costello is a prolific graphic designer, illustrator, and web designer.
  • Sand.
  • Scala - Martin Majoor, 1990s.
  • Stone Sans - Sumner Stone, 1988.
  • Snell Roundhand - Matthew Carter, 1972.
  • Times - Stanley Morison, 1931.
  • Univers - Adrian Frutiger, 1957.
  • Verdana - Matthew Carter. Designed to be legible at small screen sizes.
  • Zapf Chancery - Herman Zapf, 1979.
  • Zapfino - Herman Zapf, 1998.

Unrepresented designers:

  • Jonathan Hoefler
  • Ed Benguiat
  • Elizabeth Colwell
  • Zuzana Licko

Here are the fonts from the list that I don't have.