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Franklin Gothic

Franklin Gothic
Morris Fuller Benton, 1902
Sans-serif · American newspapers, headlines, twentieth-century news.

Named for Benjamin Franklin, who was a printer before he was anything else. Its heavier weights hold together at very large sizes, which made it the default for headlines in an era when a headline was set in metal. It is still one of the most legible sans-serifs at extreme weight.

The facts

Designed by
Morris Fuller Benton
Released
1902
Classification
Sans-serif
What it signals now
American newspapers, headlines, twentieth-century news.

Where you have seen it

  • Newspaper headlines throughout the twentieth century
  • Lots of book covers
  • Numerous US political campaigns

This page describes the typeface rather than showing it. Displaying a specimen requires a licensed font file and almost none of these may be redistributed, so the descriptions name the letters to look at instead.

Common questions

Who designed Franklin Gothic?
Morris Fuller Benton, in 1902.
What is Franklin Gothic used for?
American newspapers, headlines, twentieth-century news. You will have seen it on Newspaper headlines throughout the twentieth century, Lots of book covers, Numerous US political campaigns.

Related pages

Sources

  1. Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)

How these figures are compiled and checked