Beton is a

slab-serif In typography, a slab serif (also called ''mechanistic'', ''square serif'', ''antique'' or ''Egyptian'') typeface is a type of serif typeface characterized by thick, block-like serifs. Serif terminals may be either blunt and angular ( Rockwell), ...

typeface A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font. There are thousands o ...

Heinrich Jost Heinrich Jost (13 October 1889 – 27 September 1948) was a German typographer and graphic designer. He was the art director of the Bauer Type Foundry from 1923 until 1948. Biography Jost was born in 1889 to a bookbinder father in Magdeburg, wher ...

and released originally by the Bauer Type Foundry from 1929 onwards, with most major styles released by 1931. "Beton" is German for

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...

(originally from French), a choice of name suggesting its industrial aesthetic. Beton is a "geometric" slab serif, reflecting the style of German geometric sans-serifs (in particular Futura) which had attracted considerable attention, and adapting the design to the slab serif structure. Its structure is therefore quite strictly monoline. However, its letter 'a' is the conventional 'double-storey' 'a' used in most printing, unlike some of its competitors which reduce the letter to a circular single-story 'a'. Beton and other similar designs were popular in printing during the 1930s. Competitors included the contemporary

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

Karnak The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak (, which was originally derived from ar, خورنق ''Khurnaq'' "fortified village"), comprises a vast mix of decayed temples, pylons, chapels, and other buildings near Luxor, Egypt. Constr ...

in the United States and Rosmini from Nebiolo in Italy, and (a later and particularly similar design) Rockwell from Monotype. Beton has the normal "double-storey" 'a' used in printing, making it unlike Memphis and Karnak. Contemporary designs in a similar style include Neutraface Slab and

Archer Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In m ...

. Beton itself has been released digitally by several companies including URW and Linotype.

References

{{notelist, 30em

External links

Fonts in Use
Geometric slab-serif typefaces Bauer Type Foundry typefaces