---
title: "Futura (1927) — Paul Renner"
description: "Futura was designed by Paul Renner in 1927. What it signals, where you have seen it, and how to tell it from Century Gothic."
url: https://atoneplace.net/font/futura/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Futura

**Futura: Paul Renner, 1927**

Sans-serif · Bauhaus modernism, and then anything wanting to look confident and geometric.

Built from circles, triangles and squares on the Bauhaus principle that letters should be constructed rather than drawn. The plaque Apollo 11 left on the Moon is set in it, which makes Futura the only typeface with a specimen off the planet. Renner was not a Bauhaus member and was arrested by the Nazis, who disliked both him and the modernism his typeface stood for.

## How to tell it apart

| Mistaken for | Which letters to check |
| --- | --- |
| Century Gothic | Century Gothic has a much larger x-height and a single-storey a that is wider. Futura's lowercase is small relative to its capitals, which is what gives it its distinctive airiness — and what makes it hard to read at small sizes. |

## The facts

- **Designed by:** Paul Renner
- **Released:** 1927
- **Classification:** Sans-serif
- **What it signals now:** Bauhaus modernism, and then anything wanting to look confident and geometric.

## Where you have seen it

- The plaque left on the Moon in 1969
- Every Wes Anderson film
- Volkswagen
- Supreme
- Nike's early work

## Other typefaces from the 1920s

| Typeface | Year | Designer | What it signals |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Cooper Black | 1922 | Oswald Bruce Cooper | The 1970s, unmistakably. Soft, heavy, friendly, slightly stoned. |
| Gill Sans | 1928 | Eric Gill | Britain, mid-century. Railways, the BBC, Penguin paperbacks. |

> 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 Futura?

Paul Renner, in 1927.

### What is Futura used for?

Bauhaus modernism, and then anything wanting to look confident and geometric. You will have seen it on The plaque left on the Moon in 1969, Every Wes Anderson film, Volkswagen.

### What is the difference between Futura and Century Gothic?

Century Gothic has a much larger x-height and a single-storey a that is wider. Futura's lowercase is small relative to its capitals, which is what gives it its distinctive airiness — and what makes it hard to read at small sizes.

## Related pages

- [Typefaces from the 1920s](https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/1920s/)
- [Akzidenz-Grotesk](https://atoneplace.net/font/akzidenz-grotesk/)
- [Franklin Gothic](https://atoneplace.net/font/franklin-gothic/)
- [Johnston](https://atoneplace.net/font/johnston/)
- [Gill Sans](https://atoneplace.net/font/gill-sans/)
- [Helvetica](https://atoneplace.net/font/helvetica/)
- [Univers](https://atoneplace.net/font/univers/)
- [Optima](https://atoneplace.net/font/optima/)
- [Eurostile](https://atoneplace.net/font/eurostile/)

## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]