Britannic is a

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 ...

typeface family that was sold in metal type by

Stephenson Blake Stephenson Blake is an engineering company based in Sheffield, England. The company was active from the early 19th century as a type founder, remaining until the 1990s as the last active type foundry in Britain, since when it has diversified in ...

. It is a "modulated" or stressed sans-serif design, in which the vertical lines are clearly thicker than the horizontals. The

Klingspor Museum The Klingspor-Museum is a museum in Offenbach, Germany, specializing in the art of modern book production, typography and type. It includes a collection of fine art books from Karl Klingspor, one of the owners of Klingspor Type Foundry in Offe ...

reports that it was originally created by the Wagner & Schmidt foundry of Leipzig, Germany. In design it is intended for headings, advertisements and signs rather than continuous body text. Stephenson Blake advertised it as "just the right note for an advertising or display panel". Britannic Condensed

Since Stephenson Blake did not continue operations into digital fonts, a variety of digitisations of different weights and widths of Britannic have been released by different companies. Some releases include an all-capitals condensed weight. The bold weight, digitised by

URW URW may refer to: *Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield *Union of Russian Workers *UnReal World, survival video game *Unrestricted Warfare, military strategy *Urawa Station is a junction passenger railway station located in Urawa-ku, Saitama, Japan, operat ...

, is included with some Microsoft software such as Office. A wry commentary on the design, presumably by Microsoft's typography manager Robert Norton, adds:

This interesting face always excites heated opinions. Some, like the writer, have always put Britannic Bold firmly in the category called 'Monumentally Overrated'. Others swear by it. In fact, a survey conducted at great expense (among three people) found that two out of three thought Britannic Bold was magnificent. And it can't be all bad, having started life at the renowned Stephenson Blake type foundry, and to have outlasted the same foundry's Rothbury, which to most people is probably indistinguishable...

Usage examples

* Italian Army (''Esercito Italiano'') used Britannic Bold typeface for their logo.

References

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External links

Fonts in Use

American specimen sheet
letterpress typefaces Sans-serif typefaces Microsoft typefaces Display typefaces Stephenson Blake typefaces Typefaces and fonts introduced in 1906