Modernity came from Akzidenz-Grotesk

My favorite typeface, Akzidenz-Grotesk, literally translates to work font (commercial Grotesque). It was released in the late 1800s and has become one of the most widely used and influential typefaces created in the last 150 years.

It’s a foundational typeface, with the designers of Helvetica and Univers looking directly at it when making their characters.

Akzidenz-Grotesk is kind of thick, so many avoid it for body text, but you can take after the great Jan Tschichold and use a lighter weight of it for setting long form text (his book, Die Neue Typographie was originally set in AG). It’s also been used in large sizes on some of the most influential posters of all time (those created by Josef Müller-Brockmann.)

Akzidenz-Grotesk Anatomy

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