Why is Franklin Gothic Wide so bad?

James Puckett

Why is Franklin Gothic Wide so bad? I’m referring to Renshaw’s 1952 metal face. The curves are awkward, color is uneven, and some important lowercase letters have ugly acute points at their stroke terminals. ATF spent thrity years getting rid of the sloppy old gothics, and then in 1952 they threw their standards out the window for this one. Is there a story about how this came to be?

Thierry Blancpain

@James Puckett—if you have an image of it, it would be nice to add that to your OP so that less knowledgeable people can learn from the coming replies, too!

James Puckett

There’s a specimen at: http://dailytypespecimen.com/image/153481145383

Nick Shinn

It is what it is. Looks fine to me. I don’t mind the Vicky-grot quality.

Chris Lozos

Back then, they were solving metal type problems with metal type solutions.  Today we have the luxury of avoiding many of those problems.

Thomas Phinney

I can't say I'm a huge fan, but it's not as awful as I would have expected from your description.