Why is Franklin Gothic Wide so bad?

James Puckett Posts: 2,041

November 2016 in Type Design Technique & Theory

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?

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Comments

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  Thierry Blancpain Posts: 222

  November 2016

  @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!

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  James Puckett Posts: 2,041

  November 2016

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

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  Nick Shinn Posts: 2,338

  November 2016

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

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  Chris Lozos Posts: 1,473

  November 2016

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

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  Thomas Phinney Posts: 3,114

  November 2016

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

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