Editing Sans-serif (section)

==History==

Letters without serifs have been common in writing across history, for example in casual, non-monumental [[epigraphy]] of the classical period. However, [[Roman square capitals]], the inspiration for much Latin-alphabet lettering throughout history, had prominent serifs. While simple sans-serif letters have always been common in "uncultured" writing and sometimes even in epigraphy,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Thomas |first1=Barry |title=V Cut Lettering and Variations on a Theme |url=https://www.poorfrankraw.co.uk/blog/lettering.html |website=Poor Frank Raw |access-date=23 September 2023}}</ref> such as basic handwriting, most artistically authored letters in the Latin alphabet, both sculpted and printed, since the Middle Ages have been inspired by fine calligraphy, [[blackletter]] writing and [[Roman square capitals]]. As a result, printing done in the Latin alphabet for the first three hundred and fifty years of printing was "serif" in style, whether in [[blackletter]], [[roman type]], [[italic type|italic]] or occasionally [[Script typeface|script]].

The earliest printing typefaces which omitted serifs were not intended to render contemporary texts, but to represent inscriptions in Ancient Greek and [[Etruscan language|Etruscan]]. Thus, [[Thomas Dempster]]'s ''De Etruria regali libri VII'' (1723), used special types intended for the representation of [[Etruscan alphabet|Etruscan epigraphy]], and in {{Circa|1745}}, the Caslon foundry made Etruscan types for pamphlets written by Etruscan scholar [[John Swinton (1703–1777)|John Swinton]].<ref name=nymphgrot_update /> Another niche used of a printed sans-serif letterform from 1786 onwards was a rounded sans-serif script typeface developed by [[Valentin Haüy]] for the use of the blind to read with their fingers.<ref name="Perkins School for the Blind">{{Cite web |title=Perkins School for the Blind |url=http://www.perkinsarchives.org/archives-blog/first-embossed-book-for-the-blind |access-date=15 October 2016 |publisher=Perkins School for the Blind}}</ref><ref name="Robert Grabhorn Collection on the History of Printing">{{Cite web |last=Johnston |first=Alastair |title=Robert Grabhorn Collection on the History of Printing |url=http://sfpl.org/?pg=2000637201 |access-date=15 October 2016 |website=[[San Francisco Public Library]]}}</ref><ref name="Unborn: sans serif lower case" />
{{gallery
|File:Cippo perugino, con iscrizione in lingua etrusca su un atto giuridico tra le famiglie dei velthina e degli afuna, 02.jpg|Sans-serif letterforms in [[Etruscan language|ancient Etruscan]] on the [[Cippus Perusinus]]
|File:Forum inscription and lizard.jpg|[[Roman square capitals]], the inspiration for serif letters
|File:Iscrizione sulla fondazione della Cattedrale di Rieti.jpg|A 12th-century<ref>{{Cite book |last=Le Pogam |first=Pierre-Yves |title=De la " Cité de Dieu " au " Palais du Pape " |date=2005 |publisher=École française |isbn=978-2728307296 |location=Rome |page=375}}</ref> Medieval Latin inscription in Italy featuring sans-serif capitals
|File:Calligraphy.malmesbury.bible.arp.jpg|[[Blackletter]] calligraphy in a fifteenth-century bible
}}
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===Developing popularity===
[[File:Grotto motto, Stourhead park (9313913818).jpg|thumb|An inscription at the neoclassical [[grotto]] at [[Stourhead]] in the west of England dated to around 1748 (replica shown),{{efn|The inscription was destroyed by mistake in 1967, and had to be replicated from historian [[James Mosley]]'s photographs.<ref name="James Mosley: A Life in Objects">{{Cite web |last=Barnes |first=Paul |title=James Mosley: A Life in Objects |url=http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/james-mosley-a-life-in-objects |access-date=23 September 2016 |website=Eye}}</ref>{{sfn|Mosley|1999|page=1{{ndash}}19}}}} one of the first to use sans-serif letterforms since the classical period{{sfn|Mosley|1999}}<ref name="Walters2013">{{Cite book |last=John L Walters |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=vXIXAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1913 1913{{ndash}}5]|title=Fifty Typefaces That Changed the World: Design Museum Fifty |date=2 September 2013 |publisher=Octopus |isbn=978-1-84091-649-2 }}</ref>{{efn|Mosley's book on early sans-serifs ''The Nymph and the Grot'' is named for the sculpture.{{sfn|Mosley|1999}} The name is a dual reference, also to "grotesque" being coincidentally a term also applied to early sans-serif typefaces, although Mosley suggests that the design does not seem to be a direct source of modern sans-serifs.}}{{efn|The [[National Trust (typeface)|corporate typeface]] of the [[National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty|National Trust]] of the United Kingdom, which manages Stourhead, was loosely designed by Paul Barnes based on the inscription.}}]]
[[File:Itinerary of Greece title page.jpg|thumb|An early 1810 "neoclassical" use of sans-serif capitals to represent antiquity, by [[William Gell]]<ref name="Unborn: sans serif lower case">{{Cite web |last=Mosley |first=James |title=Comments on Typophile thread - "Unborn: sans serif lower case in the 19th century" |url=http://www.typophile.com/node/46184 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140628041224/http://www.typophile.com/node/46184 |archive-date=28 June 2014 |access-date=15 October 2016 |website=Typophile (archived)}}</ref><ref name="Itinerary of Greece">{{Cite book |last=Gell |first=William |url=https://archive.org/details/itinerarygreece00gellgoog/page/n8 |title=The Itinerary of Greece |date=1810 |location=London |access-date=8 March 2019}}</ref>]]

Towards the end of the eighteenth century [[neoclassicism]] led to architects increasingly incorporating ancient Greek and Roman designs in contemporary structures. Historian [[James Mosley]], the leading expert on early revival of sans-serif letters, has found that architect [[John Soane]] commonly used sans-serif letters on his drawings and architectural designs.{{sfn|Mosley|1999|page=1{{ndash}}19}}<ref name="Mosley Amiens">{{Cite web |last=Mosley |first=James |title=The sanserif: the search for examples |url=https://www.mnemosyne.esad-amiens.fr/manifest.php?id=4 |access-date=28 November 2020 |website=Mnémosyne: Base documentaire de l'ésad d'Amiens |publisher=ESAD Amiens}}</ref> Soane's inspiration was apparently the inscriptions dedicating the [[Temple of Vesta, Tivoli|Temple of Vesta]] in [[Tivoli, Lazio|Tivoli, Italy]], with minimal serifs.{{sfn|Mosley|1999|page=1{{ndash}}19}}

These were then copied by other artists, and in London sans-serif capitals became popular for advertising, apparently because of the "astonishing" effect the unusual style had on the public. The lettering style apparently became referred to as "old Roman" or "Egyptian" characters, referencing the classical past and a [[Ancient Egypt in the Western imagination|contemporary interest]] in Ancient Egypt and its blocky, geometric architecture.{{sfn|Mosley|1999|page=1{{ndash}}19}}<ref name="Nesbitt1998">{{Cite book |last=Alexander Nesbitt |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=lcHRgDFtBSYC&pg=PA160 160]|title=The History and Technique of Lettering |publisher=Courier Corporation |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-486-40281-9 }}</ref>

Mosley writes that "in 1805 Egyptian letters were happening in the streets of London, being plastered over shops and on walls by signwriters, and they were astonishing the public, who had never seen letters like them and were not sure they wanted to".<ref name=nymphgrot_update /> A depiction of the style, as an engraving, rather than printed from type, was shown in the ''[[European Magazine]]'' of 1805, described as "old Roman" characters.{{sfn|Mosley|1999}}<ref name="European Magazine">{{Cite news |last=L. Y. |year=1805 |title=To the Editor of the European Magazine |work=European Magazine |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=YccPAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA2-PA99 99] }}</ref> However, the style did not become used in printing for some more years.{{efn|Apparently based on traditions in his field of work, master sign-painter James Callingham writes in his textbook "Sign Writing and Glass Embossing" (1871) that "What one calls San-serif, another describes as grotesque; what is generally known as Egyptian, is some times called Antique, though it is difficult to say why, seeing that the letters so designated do not date farther back than the close of the last century. Egyptian is perhaps as good a term as could be given to the letters bearing that name, the blocks being characteristic of the Egyptian style of architecture. These letters were first used by sign-writers at the close of the last century, and were not introduced in printing till about twenty years later. Sign-writers were content to call them "block letters," and they are sometimes so-called at the present day; but on their being taken in hand by the type founders, they were appropriately named Egyptian. The credit of having introduced the ordinary square or san-serif letters also belongs to the sign-writer, by whom they were employed half a century before the type founder gave them his attention, which was about the year 1810."<ref name="Sign Writing and Glass Embossing">{{Cite book |last=Callingham |first=James |url=https://archive.org/details/signwritingglass00call |title=Sign Writing and Glass Embossing |date=1871 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/signwritingglass00call/page/54 54]–55}}</ref>{{sfn|Mosley|1999|page=1{{ndash}}19}} }} (Early sans-serif signage was not printed from type but hand-painted or carved, since at the time it was not possible to print in large sizes. This makes tracing the descent of sans-serif styles hard, since a trend can arrive in the dated, printed record from a signpainting tradition which has left less of a record or at least no dates.)

The inappropriateness of the name was not lost on the poet [[Robert Southey]], in his satirical ''Letters from England'' written in the character of a Spanish aristocrat.<ref name="Parramore2008">{{Cite book |last=L. Parramore |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=uRfGAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA22 22{{ndash}}23] |title=Reading the Sphinx: Ancient Egypt in Nineteenth-Century Literary Culture |date=13 October 2008 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-230-61570-0 }}</ref><ref name="Thompson2015">{{Cite book |last=Jason Thompson |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=rd-yCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA251 251{{ndash}}252] |title=Wonderful Things: A History of Egyptology 1: From Antiquity to 1881 |date=30 April 2015 |publisher=The American University in Cairo Press |isbn=978-977-416-599-3 }}</ref> It commented: "The very shopboards must be{{Nbsp}}... painted in Egyptian letters, which, as the Egyptians had no letters, you will doubtless conceive must be curious. They are simply the common characters, deprived of all beauty and all proportion by having all the strokes of equal thickness, so that those which should be thin look as if they had the elephantiasis."<ref name="Letters from England: by Don Manual Alvarez Espriella">{{Cite book |last=Southey |first=Robert |url=https://archive.org/details/lettersfromengl05soutgoog |title=Letters from England: by Don Manual Alvarez Espriella |date=1808 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/lettersfromengl05soutgoog/page/n286 274]–5 |publisher=D. & G. Bruce, print. |author-link=Robert Southey}}</ref>{{sfn|Mosley|1999|page=1{{ndash}}19}} Similarly, the painter [[Joseph Farington]] wrote in his diary on 13 September 1805 of seeing a memorial{{efn|to [[Isaac Hawkins Browne (poet)|Isaac Hawkins Browne]] in the [[Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge|chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge]]}} engraved "in what is called ''Egyptian Characters''".<ref name="The Farington Diary">{{Cite book |last1=Farington |first1=Joseph |url=https://archive.org/details/faringtondiaryvo027674mbp |title=The Farington Diary, Volume III, 1804-1806 |last2=Greig |first2=James |date=1924 |publisher=Hutchinson & Co |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/faringtondiaryvo027674mbp/page/n140 109] |access-date=15 October 2016}}</ref>{{sfn|Mosley|1999|page=1{{ndash}}19}}

Around 1816, the [[Ordnance Survey]] began to use 'Egyptian' lettering, monoline sans-serif capitals, to mark ancient Roman sites. This lettering was printed from copper plate engraving.{{sfn|Mosley|1999}}<ref name="Unborn: sans serif lower case" />

===Entry into printing===
Around 1816, William Caslon IV produced the first sans-serif printing type in England for the Latin alphabet, a capitals-only face under the title [[Caslon Egyptian|'Two Lines English Egyptian']], where 'Two Lines English' referred to the typeface's body size, which equals to about 28 points.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tracy |first=Walter |title=Letters of credit : a view of type design |date=2003 |publisher=David R. Godine |isbn=9781567922400 |location=Boston}}</ref><ref name="Calligraphic tendencies in the development of sanserif types in the twentieth century">{{Cite book |last=Tam |first=Keith |url=http://keithtam.net/documents/sanserif.pdf |title=Calligraphic tendencies in the development of sanserif types in the twentieth century |date=2002 |publisher=University of Reading (MA thesis) |location=Reading |access-date=17 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906080252/http://keithtam.net/documents/sanserif.pdf |archive-date=6 September 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Although it is known from its appearances in the firm's specimen books, no uses of it from the period have been found; Mosley speculates that it may have been commissioned by a specific client.<ref name="Loxley2006 Egyptian">{{Cite book |last=Loxley |first=Simon |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=9AfP2prmEDUC&pg=PA36 36{{ndash}}38] |title=Type: The Secret History of Letters |date=12 June 2006 |publisher=I.B.Tauris |isbn=978-1-84511-028-4 }}</ref>{{efn|The matrices used to cast the type also survive, although at least some characters were recut slightly later. Historian [[John A. Lane]], who has examined surviving Caslon specimens and the matrices, suggests that the design is actually slightly earlier and may date to around 1812-4, noting that it appears in some undated but apparently earlier specimens.<ref name="The Song of the Sans Serif">{{Cite web |title=The Song of the Sans Serif |date=30 September 2016 |url=http://www.cphc.org.uk/events/2015/11/20/the-song-of-the-sanserif |access-date=16 October 2016 |publisher=The Centre for Printing History and Culture}}</ref>}}

A second hiatus in interest in sans-serif appears to have lasted for about twelve years, until [[Vincent Figgins]]' foundry of London issued a new sans-serif in 1828.<ref name="Two Lines English Egyptian typophile">{{Cite web |last1=Mosley |first1=James |author-link=James Mosley |last2=Shinn |first2=Nick |author-link2=Nick Shinn |title=Two Lines English Egyptian (comments on forum) |url=http://typophile.com/node/51985 |access-date=30 October 2017 |website=Typophile |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100314165635/http://typophile.com/node/51985 |archive-date=14 March 2010 |quote=[T]he Figgins 'Sans-serif' types (so called) are well worth looking at. In fact it might be said to be that with these types the Figgins typefoundry brought the design into typography, since the original Caslon Egyptian appeared only briefly in a specimen and has never been seen in commercial use. One size of the Figgins Sans-serif appears in a specimen dated 1828 (the unique known copy is in the University Library, Amsterdam).…It is a self-confident design, which in the larger sizes abandons the monoline structure of the Caslon letter for a thick-thin modulation which would remain a standard model through the 19th century, and can still be seen in the ATF [[Franklin Gothic]]. Note that there is no lower-case. That would come, after 1830, with the innovative condensed 'Grotesque' of the Thorowgood foundry, which provided a model for type that would get large sizes into the lines of posters. It gave an alternative name to the design, and both the new features – the condensed proportions and the addition of lower-case – broke the link with Roman inscriptional capitals…But the antiquarian associations of the design were still there, at least in the smaller sizes, as the specimen of the Pearl size (four and three quarters points) of Figgins's type shows. It uses the text of the Latin inscription prepared for the [[London Bridge#"New" London Bridge (1831–1967)|rebuilt London Bridge]], which was opened on 1 August 1831.}}</ref><ref name="Dutch Typefounders">{{Cite book |last1=Lane |first1=John A. |url=https://issuu.com/bijzondere_collecties_uva/docs/1998_dutch_typefounders_specimens |title=Dutch Typefounders' Specimens from the Library of the KVB and other collections in the Amsterdam University Library with histories of the firms represented |last2=Lommen |first2=Mathieu |last3=de Zoete |first3=Johan |date=1998 |publisher=De Graaf |page=15 |quote=Figgins 1828 [is] one of two known copies, but with the first known appearance of the world's second sans-serif type, not in the other copy |author-link=John A. Lane |access-date=4 August 2017}}</ref><ref name="Original Sans Commercial Type" /> David Ryan felt that the design was "cruder but much larger" than its predecessor, making it a success.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ryan |first1=David |title=Letter Perfect: The Art of Modernist Typography, 1896-1953 |date=2001 |publisher=Pomegranate |isbn=978-0-7649-1615-1 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=4JV-10eXmOoC&pg=PA2 2]}}</ref> Thereafter sans-serif capitals rapidly began to be issued from London typefounders.

Much imitated was the Thorowgood "grotesque" face of the early 1830s. This was arrestingly bold and highly condensed, quite unlike the classical proportions of Caslon's design, but very suitable for poster typography and similar in aesthetic effect to the (generally wider) [[slab serif]] and [[Fat face typefaces|"fat faces"]] of the period. It also added a lower-case. The term "grotesque" comes from the Italian word for ''cave'', and was often used to describe Roman decorative styles found by excavation, but had long become applied in the modern sense for objects that appeared "malformed or monstrous".<ref name="A Neo-Grotesque Heritage">{{Cite web |last=Berry |first=John |title=A Neo-Grotesque Heritage |url=http://acumin.typekit.com/history/ |access-date=15 October 2015 |publisher=Adobe Systems}}</ref> The term "grotesque" became commonly used to describe sans-serifs.

Similar condensed sans-serif display typefaces, often capitals-only, became very successful.{{sfn|Mosley|1999|page=1{{ndash}}19}} Sans-serif printing types began to appear thereafter in France and Germany.<ref name="Morlighem Tokyo">{{Cite web |last=Morlighem |first=Sébastien |title=The Sans Serif in France: The Early Years (1834–44) Sebastien Morlighem ATypI 2019 Tokyo |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Caj6pvyE7iM |access-date=28 November 2020 |website=YouTube |publisher=[[ATypI]]}}</ref><ref name="Affichen-Schriften">{{Cite web |last=Pané-Farré |first=Pierre |title=Affichen-Schriften |url=https://forgotten-shapes.com/affichen-schriften?article=affichen-schriften |access-date=21 July 2019 |publisher=Forgotten Shapes}}</ref>

{{gallery
|File:Caslon Two Lines English Egyptian.jpg|Specimen by William Caslon IV showing his Two Lines English Egyptian sans-serif, the first general-purpose "sans-serif" printing type ever.<ref name="Caslon Egyptian specimen">{{Cite book |last=Caslon |first=William |url=https://archive.org/details/ldpd_13098084_000/page/n5 |title=[Specimens of printing types] (untitled specimen book) |year=c. 1816 |publisher=William Caslon IV |location=London |access-date=6 March 2019}}</ref> Cut in only one size, it was apparently not promoted with any prominence.
|File:Figgins large sans-serifs, reversed antique.jpg|The largest type in this image is the second sans-serif type known, published by Figgins in 1828.<ref name="Original Sans Commercial Type">{{Cite web |last1=Barnes |first1=Paul |author-link=Paul Barnes (designer) |last2=Schwartz |first2=Christian |author-link2=Christian Schwartz |title=Original Sans Collection: Read the Story |url=https://commercialclassics.com/catalogue/original_sans |access-date=18 May 2021 |publisher=[[Commercial Type|Commercial Classics]]}}</ref> 
| File:Figgins sans-serif specimen.jpg|Sample image of condensed sans-serifs from the Figgins foundry of London in an 1845 specimen-book. Much less influenced by classical models than the earliest sans-serif lettering, these faces became extremely popular for commercial use.<ref name="Specimen of Plain & Ornamental Types from the Foundry of V. & J. Figgins">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_IkNPAAAAcAAJ |title=Specimen of Plain & Ornamental Types from the Foundry of V. & J. Figgins |date=1846 |publisher=V. & J. Figgins Letterfounders |location=London |access-date=16 October 2016}}</ref>
}}

A few theories about early sans-serifs now known to be incorrect may be mentioned here. One is that sans-serifs are based on either "[[fat face typefaces]]" or [[slab-serif]]s with the serifs removed.{{sfn|Meggs|2011|p=155}}<ref name="Handover Monotype">{{Cite journal |last=Handover |first=Phyllis Margaret |author-link=P. M. Handover |date=1958 |title=Grotesque Letters |url=http://up.stewf.com/0o400K3p302U |journal=Monotype Newsletter}} Also Printed in Motif as "Letters Without Serifs"</ref> It is now known that the inspiration was more classical antiquity, and sans-serifs appeared before the first dated appearance of slab-serif letterforms in 1810.<ref name="Unborn: sans serif lower case" /> The [[Schelter & Giesecke Type Foundry|Schelter & Giesecke foundry]] also claimed during the 1920s to have been offering a sans-serif with lower-case by 1825.{{sfn|Lawson|1990|p=296}}<ref name="Handbuch der Schriftarten">{{Cite book |title=Handbuch der Schriftarten |date=1926 |publisher=Seeman |location=Leipzig}}</ref> Wolfgang Homola dated it in 2004 to 1882 based on a study of Schelter & Giesecke specimens;<ref name="Homola Schelter">{{Cite web |last=Homola |first=Wolfgang |title=Type design in the age of the machine. The 'Breite Grotesk' by J. G. Schelter & Giesecke |url=http://www.typefacedesign.org/resources/dissertation/2004/WolfgangHomola_dissertation.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110112014111/http://www.typefacedesign.org/resources/dissertation/2004/WolfgangHomola_dissertation.pdf |archive-date=12 January 2011 |access-date=17 January 2018 |publisher=University of Reading (archived)}}</ref> Mosley describes this as "thoroughly discredited"; even in 1986 [[Walter Tracy]] described the claimed dates as "on stylistic grounds{{Nbsp}}... about forty years too early".<ref name="Unborn: sans serif lower case" /><ref name="Letters of Credit Industrial" />

Sans-serif lettering and typefaces were popular due to their clarity and legibility at distance in advertising and display use, when printed very large or small. Because sans-serif type was often used for headings and commercial printing, many early sans-serif designs did not feature lower-case letters. Simple sans-serif capitals, without use of lower-case, became very common in uses such as tombstones of the Victorian period in Britain.

The first use of sans-serif as a running text has been proposed to be the short booklet ''Feste des Lebens und der Kunst: eine Betrachtung des Theaters als höchsten Kultursymbols'' (Celebration of Life and Art: A Consideration of the Theater as the Highest Symbol of a Culture),<ref name=behrens /> by [[Peter Behrens]], in 1900.{{sfn|Meggs|2011|p=242}}

{{gallery
| File:Base of the Reformers Memorial, Kensal Green Cemetery, showing Lloyd Jones.JPG|Simple sans-serif capitals on a late-nineteenth-century [[Kensal Green Cemetery#The Reformers.27 Memorial|memorial]], London
| File:Caslon 1841 specimen Seven-line Pica sans-serif italic typeface.jpg|Italic capitals from the Caslon specimen of 1841
| File:BlastFirst.jpg|The first section of the avant-garde magazine [[Blast (British magazine)|''Blast'']], published by [[Wyndham Lewis]] in 1914, used [[Grotesque (Stephenson Blake typefaces)|a condensed grotesque]] to give an impression of modernity and novelty.
| File:Überwachung der Eisenbahnlinien - Warnung - Laibach - Mehrsprachiges Plakat 1914.jpg|Sans-serif type in both upper- and lower-case on a 1914 poster
}}
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===Twentieth-century sans-serifs===
[[File:LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard Nameplate.jpg|thumb|right|[[Gill Sans]] on the nameplate of a [[LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard|4468 ''Mallard'']] locomotive (built in 1938)<ref name="Badaracco">{{Cite journal |last=Badaracco |first=Claire |date=1991 |title=Innovative Industrial Design and Modern Public Culture: The Monotype Corporation, 1922–1932 |url=http://www.thebhc.org/sites/default/files/beh/BEHprint/v020/p0226-p0233.pdf |journal=Business & Economic History |publisher=Business History Conference |volume=20 (second series) |pages=229|access-date=19 December 2015}}</ref>]]

Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries sans-serif types were viewed with suspicion by many printers, especially those of [[Fine press|fine book printing]], as being fit only for advertisements (if that), and to this day{{When|date=August 2021}}<!-- "and to this day" → "and {{as of|lc=y|2021}}" if this still applies in 2021 --> most books remain printed in serif typefaces as body text.<ref name="Rogers, Updike, McCutcheon">{{Cite book |last1=Rogers |last2=Updike |last3=McCutcheon |url=https://archive.org/stream/workofbruceroger00updi/workofbruceroger00updi_djvu.txt |title=The work of Bruce Rogers, jack of all trades, master of one : a catalogue of an exhibition arranged by the American Institute of Graphic Arts and the Grolier Club of New York |date=1939 |publisher=Grolier Club, Oxford University Press |location=New York |pages=xxxv-xxxvii}}</ref> This impression would not have been helped by the standard of common sans-serif types of the period, many of which now seem somewhat lumpy and eccentrically shaped. In 1922, master printer [[Daniel Berkeley Updike]] described sans-serif typefaces as having "no place in any artistically respectable composing-room."<ref name="Printing types : their history, forms, and use; a study in survivals vol 2">{{Cite book |last=Updike |first=Daniel Berkeley |url=https://archive.org/stream/printingtypesth00updigoog/printingtypesth00updigoog_djvu.txt |title=Printing types : their history, forms, and use; a study in survivals vol 2 |date=1922 |publisher=Harvard University Press |edition=1st |location=Cambridge, MA |page=243 |access-date=17 August 2015}}</ref> In 1937 he stated that he saw no need to change this opinion in general, though he felt that [[Gill Sans]] and [[Futura (typeface)|Futura]] were the best choices if sans-serifs had to be used.{{sfn|Lawson|1990|p=330}}

Through the early twentieth century, an increase in popularity of sans-serif typefaces took place as more artistic sans-serif designs were released. While he disliked sans-serif typefaces in general, the American printer J. L. Frazier wrote of [[Copperplate Gothic]] in 1925 that "a certain dignity of effect accompanies{{Nbsp}}... due to the absence of anything in the way of frills", making it a popular choice for the stationery of professionals such as lawyers and doctors.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Frazier |first=J.L. |url=https://archive.org/details/typelorepopularf00fraz |title=Type Lore |date=1925 |location=Chicago |publisher = (self published) |page=[https://archive.org/details/typelorepopularf00fraz/page/20 20] |access-date=24 August 2015}}</ref> As Updike's comments suggest, the new, more constructed humanist and geometric sans-serif designs were viewed as increasingly respectable, and were shrewdly marketed in Europe and America as embodying classic proportions (with influences of Roman capitals) while presenting a spare, modern image.<ref name="Fifty Years of Typecutting, Monotype Recorder">{{Cite journal |date=1950 |title=Fifty Years of Typecutting |url=http://www.metaltype.co.uk/downloads/mr/mr_39_2.pdf |journal=Monotype Recorder |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=11, 21 |access-date=12 July 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Gill Sans Promotional Poster, 1928 |url=http://theredlist.com/wiki-2-343-917-998-view-type-profile-gill-eric.html |website=Red List |publisher=Monotype |access-date=17 August 2015 |archive-date=27 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200227184410/http://theredlist.com/wiki-2-343-917-998-view-type-profile-gill-eric.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Preparing a Railway Timetable">{{Cite journal |last=Robinson |first=Edwin |date=1939 |title=Preparing a Railway Timetable |url=http://www.metaltype.co.uk/downloads/mr/mr_38_1.pdf |journal=Monotype Recorder |volume=38 |issue=1 |page=24 |access-date=12 July 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hewitt |first=John |year=1995 |title=East Coast Joys: Tom Purvis and the LNER |journal=Journal of Design History |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=291–311 |doi=10.1093/jdh/8.4.291 |jstor=1316023}}</ref><ref name="Type Tactics Grotesques">{{Cite journal |last=Horn |first=Frederick A. |date=1936 |title=Type Tactics No. 2: Grotesques: The Sans Serif Vogue |journal=Commercial Art |volume=20 |issue=132–135 |page=http://magazines.iaddb.org/issue/CAI/1936-04-01/edition/null/page/18}}</ref>

Futura in particular was extensively marketed by Bauer and its American distribution arm by brochure as capturing the spirit of modernity, using the German slogan "''die Schrift unserer Zeit''" ("the typeface of our time") and in English ''"the typeface of today and tomorrow"''; many typefaces were released under its influence as direct clones, or at least offered with alternate characters allowing them to imitate it if desired.<ref name="Futura: The Typeface of Today and Tomorrow">{{Cite web |last=Rhatigan |first=Dan |title=Futura: The Typeface of Today and Tomorrow |url=http://ultrasparky.org/archives/2014/01/futura_the_type.html |access-date=21 January 2018 |website=Ultrasparky}}</ref><ref name="Aynsley">{{Cite book |last=Aynsley |first=Jeremy |title=Graphic Design in Germany: 1890-1945 |date=2000 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520227965 |location=Berkeley |pages=102–5}}</ref><ref name="Shaw2017">{{Cite book |first=Paul |last= Shaw |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=n7e0DgAAQBAJ&pg=PA210 210{{ndash}}213]|title=Revival Type: Digital Typefaces Inspired by the Past |date=April 2017 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-21929-6 }}</ref><ref name="Typographic Sanity">{{Cite web |last=Shaw |first=Paul |title=From the Archives: Typographic Sanity |url=http://www.paulshawletterdesign.com/2010/01/from-the-archives-no-9-typographic-sanity/ |access-date=26 December 2015 |publisher=Paul Shaw Letter Design}}</ref>

{{Clear}}

===Grotesque sans-serif revival and the International Typographic Style===
[[File:Geisser Plakat Mohrenball 1969.jpg|thumb|A 1969 poster exemplifying the trend of the 1950s and 1960s: solid red colour, simplified images and the use of a grotesque face. This design, by Robert Geisser, appears to use Helvetica.]]
In the post-war period, an increase of interest took place in "grotesque" sans-serifs.<ref name="Gerstner English">{{Cite journal |last=Gerstner |first=Karl |author-link=Karl Gerstner |date=1963 |title=A new basis for the old Akzidenz-Grotesk (English translation) |url=http://forgotten-shapes.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/a-new-basis-for-akzidenz-grotesk-english-translation.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Der Druckspiegel |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171015202441/http://forgotten-shapes.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/a-new-basis-for-akzidenz-grotesk-english-translation.pdf |archive-date=15 October 2017 |access-date=15 October 2017}}</ref><ref name="Gerstner German">{{Cite journal |last=Gerstner |first=Karl |author-link=Karl Gerstner |date=1963 |title=Die alte Akzidenz-Grotesk auf neuer Basis |url=http://forgotten-shapes.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/akzidenz-grotesk-auf-neuer-basis-german-original.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Der Druckspiegel |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171015202204/http://forgotten-shapes.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/akzidenz-grotesk-auf-neuer-basis-german-original.pdf |archive-date=15 October 2017 |access-date=15 October 2017}}</ref><ref name="A Brief Introduction to Impact">{{Cite journal |last1=Brideau |first1=K. |last2=Berret |first2=C. |date=16 December 2014 |title=A Brief Introduction to Impact: 'The Meme Font' |journal=Journal of Visual Culture |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=307–313 |doi=10.1177/1470412914544515 |s2cid=62262265}}</ref> Writing in ''The Typography of Press Advertisement'' (1956), printer Kenneth Day commented that Stephenson Blake's eccentric [[Grotesque (Stephenson Blake typefaces)|Grotesque series]] had returned to popularity for having "a personality sometimes lacking in the condensed forms of the contemporary sans cuttings of the last thirty years."<ref name="The Typography of Press Advertisement">{{Cite book |last=Day |first=Kenneth |title=The Typography of Press Advertisement |date=1956 |pages=86–8}}</ref> Leading type designer [[Adrian Frutiger]] wrote in 1961 on designing a new face, [[Univers]], on the nineteenth-century model: "Some of these old sans-serifs have had a real renaissance within the last twenty years, once the reaction of the 'New Objectivity' had been overcome. A purely geometrical form of type is unsustainable."<ref name="P88">{{Cite book |last=Frutiger |first=Adrian |title=Typefaces: The Complete Works |date=2014 |isbn=9783038212607 |page=88|publisher=Walter de Gruyter }}</ref>

Of this period in Britain, Mosley has commented that in 1960 "orders unexpectedly revived" for [[Monotype Imaging|Monotype's]] eccentric [[Monotype Grotesque]] design: "[it] represents, even more evocatively than Univers, the fresh revolutionary breeze that began to blow through typography in the early sixties" and "its rather clumsy design seems to have been one of the chief attractions to iconoclastic designers tired of the{{Nbsp}}... prettiness of Gill Sans".<ref name=nymphgrot_update />{{sfn|Mosley|1999|page=9}}

By the 1960s, neo-grotesque typefaces such as [[Univers]] and [[Helvetica]] had become popular through reviving the nineteenth-century grotesques while offering a more unified range of styles than on previous designs, allowing a wider range of text to be set artistically through setting headings and body text in a single family.<ref name="Shinn Uniformity">{{Cite journal |last=Shinn |first=Nick |author-link=Nick Shinn |date=2003 |title=The Face of Uniformity |url=http://shinntype.com/wp-content/uploads/Uniformity.pdf |journal=Graphic Exchange |access-date=31 December 2019 |archive-date=18 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161118134053/http://shinntype.com/wp-content/uploads/Uniformity.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Shaw |first=Paul |title=Helvetica and Univers addendum |url=http://www.paulshawletterdesign.com/2011/12/from-the-archives-no-26%E2%80%94helvetica-and-univers-addendum/ |access-date=1 July 2015 |website=Blue Pencil}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Schwartz |first=Christian |title=Neue Haas Grotesk |url=http://www.christianschwartz.com/haasgrotesk.shtml |access-date=28 November 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Neue Haas Grotesk |url=http://www.fontbureau.com/nhg/ |publisher=The Font Bureau, Inc. |page=Introduction}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Neue Haas Grotesk |url=http://www.fontbureau.com/nhg/history/ |website=History |publisher=The Font Bureau, Inc.}}</ref> The style of design using asymmetric layouts, Helvetica and a grid layout extensively has been called the Swiss or [[International Typographic Style]].