Monotype Grotesque

Category	Sans-serif
Classification	Realist sans-serif
Designer(s)	Frank Hinman Pierpont
Foundry	Monotype Corporation
Date released	1926
Re-issuing foundries	Stephenson Blake, Adobe Type, Linotype

Monotype Grotesque is a realist sans-serif typeface designed by Frank Hinman Pierpont (1860–1937) and released by the Monotype foundry in 1926.

Pierpont based his design for Monotype Grotesque on Ideal, an earlier more idiosyncratic sans-serif by the H. Berthold AG foundry and William Thorowogood's 1832 face titled "Grotesque." Uppercase characters are of near equal width, the G has a spur in some weights, and the M in the non-condensed weights is square. The lowercase characters a, e, g, and t follow the model of twentieth century English romans. Monotype Grotesque is a large extended typeface family with multiple widths from condensed to extended.

Though Monotype Grotesque never achieved the popularity of Akzidenz Grotesk, or its own contemporaries Futura, and Gill Sans, it remained a steady seller through the twentieth century, and is found in early twentieth century avant garde printing from western and central Europe.

Arial is designed based on Monotype Grotesque.

References

• Friedl, Frederich, Nicholas Ott and Bernard Stein. Typography: An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Through History. Black Dog & Leventhal: 1998. ISBN 1-57912-023-7.
• Jaspert, Berry and Johnson. Encyclopaedia of Type Faces. Cassell Paperback, London; 2001. ISBN 1-84188-139-2
• Macmillan, Neil. An A–Z of Type Designers. Yale University Press: 2006. ISBN 0-300-11151-7.

External links

• Monotype Imaging web page for Monotype Grotesque
• Monotype Grotesque Font Family - by Monotype Design Studio