Trade Gothic is a sans-serif

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 list of type ...

first designed in 1948 by

Jackson Burke Jackson Burke (1908 in San Francisco, California – 1975) was an American type and book designer. After studying at the University of California, Berkeley, he succeeded C.H. Griffith as Director of Typographic Development at Mergenthaler Linotyp ...

(1908–1975), who continued to work on further style-weight combinations (eventually 14 in all) until 1960 while he was director of type development for Linotype in the US. The family includes three weights and three widths. Like many gothic fonts of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Trade Gothic is more irregular than many other

sans-serif In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif, gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than seri ...

families that came later, especially later ones like

Helvetica Helvetica (originally Neue Haas Grotesk) is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann. Helvetica is a neo-grotesque design, one influenced by the famous 19th century (1890s) ...

and

Univers Univers () is a large sans-serif typeface family designed by Adrian Frutiger and released by his employer Deberny & Peignot in 1957. Classified as a Grotesque (typeface classification), neo-grotesque sans-serif, one based on the model of nineteen ...

. This variety is often popular with designers who feel that it creates a more characterful effect. Its complex history has left it with several unexpected features: for instance in some digital releases the default bold weight is more condensed than the regular weight, the opposite of the norm, with a wider bold offered as an alternative.

Releases

Like many pre-digital fonts, cross-licensing has meant the original digitisation of Trade Gothic is available from a range of companies, including Adobe (14 styles) and Linotype (36).

Trade Gothic Next

Released in February 2009 by Linotype, it is a redesign by Akira Kobayashi and Tom Grace. The most important change was to remove the inconsistencies found in the original family. Other reworked designs include terminals, stroke endings, the spacing, and the kerning. The family includes 17 fonts in four weights and three widths, with the fourth (Light) weight only in widest width fonts, and complementary italic in all but Compressed width fonts. It supports ISO-Adobe 2, Adobe CE,

Latin Extended Over a thousand characters from the Latin script are encoded in the Unicode Standard, grouped in several basic and extended Latin blocks. The extended ranges contain mainly precomposed letters plus diacritics that are equivalently encoded with co ...

characters. OpenType features include sub/superscript, proportional lining figures. The extended width from original Trade Gothic was not included. Linotype also released some styles with a rounded design.

Trade Gothic Next Rounded (2009)

It is a rounded version of Trade Gothic Next.

Trade Gothic Display (2017)

Designed by Lynne Yun of Monotype GmbH, this family is based on Trade Gothic Condensed Heavy, but with only capital glyphs for Latin texts. The different fonts can be used over each other in layers to create complex effects. The family include five fonts in one weight and one width, with five different styles inside glyph outlines. OpenType features include case-sensitive forms, numerators/denominators, fractions, standard ligatures, localized forms, sub/superscript, proportional/lining figures, glyph (de)composition, kerning, mark (to mark) positioning.

Usage

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...

'' often uses Trade Gothic along with Hector Rounded. Explaining why he often uses Trade Gothic in an article for HiLoBrow, designer Tony Leone wrote that Trade Gothic, especially its Bold Condensed weight, "is airy in its spacing — especially when set as text — which gives it its pleasing character...it plays well with others — that is, it combines nicely with more extravagant or decadent faces and can serve as a workhorse option with other sans serifs." The

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and la ...

and

Heidelberg University } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

use Trade Gothic as their sans-serif branding font.

References

External links

*Monotype GmbH pages
Trade GothicMyFonts page on Trade Gothic NextAdobe digitisation

News/Trade/Franklin Gothic alternatives
- survey by Stephen Coles

Linotype typefaces Typefaces and fonts introduced in 1948 Typefaces and fonts introduced in 2009 Grotesque sans-serif typefaces American gothic typefaces Typefaces designed by Jackson Burke {{typography-stub