Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk alternative for web use

Lars Schwarz

Long story told short: A client licensed Akzidenz Grotesk from Berthold years ago. Berthold serves these (special license) via Adobe/TypeKit. TypeKit uses a tracking pixel/cookie so with the current EU cookie law ( ) the font cannot be loaded w/o the user opting-in first. Self hosting requires an enterprise license from Berthold.

Is there any good Akzidenz Grotesk alternative available per self-hosting license or am I missing an alternative way (no cookie usage) to load via Adobe/TypeKit?

Craig Eliason

Is Linotype's "Basic Commercial" available in the format you'd need?

Marc Oxborrow

According to Adobe, "In providing the Adobe Fonts service for websites, we do not set or use cookies in order to serve our fonts."

https://www.adobe.com/privacy/policies/adobe-fonts.html

They go on to list a host of other information they do collect, mind you.

Is it this other data gathering that concerns your client and/or requires user notification?

Lars Schwarz

Wait a sec, seems like the data security offer is totally wrong and he confused a tracking pixel with a cookie (and I was way too rash in believing him instead of actually verifying it!) ... sorry guys and thanks for your feedback!

Lars Schwarz

However the original issue remains, the data security officer suggests not to allow any tracking pixels to be loaded from non-EU services without an explicit user consent. Therefore the client is looking for an alternative font and license options that would allow self-hosting.

JoyceKetterer

I'm sure you're more qualified than any of us to find a font that will make your client happy – which I would suggest might be easier than trying to find a close visual match.  In my experience the thing the clients like is usually the mood and how the font made them feel. So you might find something else that achieves that which no font person would think is similar.  To plug my own foundry, if they should like anything on offer we're set up to license self hosting for exactly this reason.  You can find our complete pricing table in the licensing area of our website.

Lars Schwarz

Thanks Joyce, actually I'm not involved with the brand part and the client wants to stick to Akzidenz Grotesk (or something very very similar), because the design and brand agency says so (and the client agrees)

JoyceKetterer

@Lars Schwarz Good luck then.  I think the problem may be that they don't really understand what similar means and what they actually want.  It's a bummer that Bertold is always so old school about web stuff, they are probably losing good money by not accommodating this at level lower than "enterprise".

Florian Hardwig

Basic Commercial as already mentioned by Craig is Akzidenz-Grotesk. It just has a different name for legal reasons. 4 weights plus italics, and 3 rounded weights.
Gothic 725 is Bitstream’s digitization. ParaType’s version adds Cyrillic. 2 weights only.
Standard CT is CastleType’s interpretation. 25 styles in 4 widths, plus a stencil cut. No italics.
Theinhardt by Optimo is a bit farther removed from the original. On the plus side: Cyrillic and Greek as well as 4 widths plus a monospaced companion, in 6–9 weights plus italics.
The most recent interpretation is Klim’s Söhne. 3 widths and a mono, each in 8 weights plus italics.
Furthermore, there are numerous typefaces that reference AG in a less direct way. I’d put FontFont’s FF Real into this group.

Lars Schwarz

Thanks Florian, that's a great list/reference. I'll check if any of these possible alternatives also offer a self-hosting license!

JoyceKetterer

Optimo has self hosted web licensing, not sure about the others.  Their way of counting for it can be complicated but they do do it.