Grotesk / Grotesque

Daniel Riley

Hi Everybody,

I am curious to know what were/are the main stylistic differences between a German Grotesk and a British Grotesque?

best
Daniel

Mark Simonson

There are a few exceptions, but usually German Grotesk faces feature a single-story /g, British Grotesque faces feature a double-story /g.

Nick Shinn

The “continental/infant” version of Gill Sans is discussed here.

Dan Reynolds

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, several of the sans serif typefaces sold in Germany were imported by German foundries from British ones, and/or exact copies were made illicitly via electroplating. Surely some German founders cut sans serifs that were very close copies of what was being sold in the UK, too. And there were British punchcutters who worked in Germany and German punchcutters who worked in Britain as well. So I find a line between German Grotesks and British Grotesques very difficult to delineate.

jeremy tribby

I wonder if part of the reason for the british association with the two-story /g is stephenson & blake's "grotesque" series, which both features it heavily, and may come to mind first when thinking of british grotesques, even if it that form of /g wasn't terribly more-common overall. there are indeed plenty of examples of it in dan's german archive

Mark Simonson

I've long had the impression (although I don't know for sure if it's true) that late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century German type designers favored the one-story /g (and sometimes /a) due to their comfort and familiarity with fraktur.

Dan Reynolds

Mark Simonson said:

I've long had the impression (although I don't know for sure if it's true) that late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century German type designers favored the one-story /g (and sometimes /a) due to their comfort and familiarity with fraktur.

Yes, I think that there must be something to your suggestion about the one-story /g feeling more “familiar,” since Fraktur versions of /g always look that way. People seemed to have been quite happy mixing a one-story /g with a two-story /a, though.

Daniel Riley

Thank you all for the information!

@Mark Simonson @Nick Shinn @Dan Reynolds @jeremy tribby