Copperplate Gothic
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Copperplate Gothic is a
typeface A typeface (or font family) is a design of Letter (alphabet), letters, Numerical digit, numbers and other symbols, to be used in printing or for electronic display. Most typefaces include variations in size (e.g., 24 point), weight (e.g., light, ...
designed by Frederic W. Goudy and first produced by
American Type Founders American Type Founders (ATF) Co. was a business trust created in 1892 by the merger of 23 type foundries, representing about 85 percent of all type manufactured in the United States at the time. De Vinne, Theodore Low, ''The Practice of Typogr ...
(ATF) beginning in 1901. While termed a "''Gothic''" (another term for
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 ...
), the face has small
glyph A glyph ( ) is any kind of purposeful mark. In typography, a glyph is "the specific shape, design, or representation of a character". It is a particular graphical representation, in a particular typeface, of an element of written language. A ...
ic
serif In typography, a serif () is a small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol within a particular font or family of fonts. A typeface or "font family" making use of serifs is called a serif typeface ( ...
s that act to emphasize the blunt terminus of vertical and horizontal strokes. The typeface shows an unusual combination of influences; the glyphs are reminiscent of stone carving or lettering on copperplate engravings, the wide horizontal axis is typical of Victorian display types, yet the result is cleaner and leaves a crisp impression in
letterpress Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing for producing many copies by repeated direct impression of an inked, raised surface against individual sheets of paper or a continuous roll of paper. A worker composes and locks movable t ...
or
offset printing Offset printing is a common printing technique in which the inked image is transferred (or "offset") from a plate to a rubber blanket and then to the printing surface. When used in combination with the lithography, lithographic process, which ...
. Goudy designed Copperplate Gothic in capitals only, since the design was intended to be used for headings and key words rather than for body text. It is not at all characteristic of Goudy's work, which is generally in the old-style serif genre. Goudy created it early in his career while in need of commissions, although he wrote in his 1946 autobiography that he "treasured" the drawings for their quality and noted that the design remained largely used. It was developed on the initiative of ATF manager Clarence Marder while Goudy was living in
Hingham, Massachusetts Hingham ( ) is a town in northern Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Plymouth County in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Part of the Greater Boston region, it is located on the South Shore (Massachusetts), South Shore of Massachusetts. At the 2020 ...
. ATF later cut other versions, such as bold styles, condensed and shaded styles, but never a lower case. The typeface is often used in stationery, for social printing and business cards. It is also classically seen acid-etched into glass on the doors of law offices, banks and restaurants. Master printer J. L. Frazier, no great fan of sans-serif types, wrote of it in 1925 that "a certain dignity of effect accompanies...due to the absence of anything in the way of frills," making it a popular choice for the stationery of professionals such as lawyers and doctors.


In popular culture

The typeface was used in the logo of the game show ''
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'' and the
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logo from 1990 and 1997 until 2012, as well as the
Knowledge Adventure JumpStart Games, Inc., formerly Knowledge Adventure, Inc., was an American edutainment video game company based in Torrance, California. Founded in 1991, it was acquired by Chinese holding company NetDragon Websoft in 2017. History From 1991 ...
logo from 1993 to 1998. It was also used in the opening
title sequence A title screen (also called an opening screen or intro) is the method by which films or television show, television programmes present their title and key filmmaking, production and cast members, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound (often an op ...
,
end credits Closing credits, aka end credits or end titles, are a list of the cast and crew of a particular motion picture, television show, or video game. While opening credits appear at the beginning of a work, closing credits appear close to or at the ve ...
and on Paul Allen's business card in the 2000 film ''
American Psycho ''American Psycho'' is a black comedy horror novel by American writer Bret Easton Ellis, published in 1991. The story is told in the First-person narrative, first-person by Patrick Bateman, a wealthy, narcissistic, and vain Manhattan investmen ...
''. The typeface was also used in the 1990s for
Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...
's second logo for the
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and
Sega CD The Sega CD, known as in most regions outside North America and Brazil, is a CD-ROM accessory and format for the Sega Genesis produced by Sega as part of the fourth generation of video game consoles. Originally released in November 1991, it ca ...
, as well as the logos for the
32X The 32X is an video game accessory, add-on for the Sega Genesis video game console. Codenamed "Project Mars", it was designed to expand the power of the Genesis and serve as a transitional console into the History of video game consoles (fifth ...
,
Game Gear The is an 8-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth-generation handheld game console released by Sega on October 6, 1990 in Japan, in April 1991 throughout North America and Europe, and in 1992 in Australia. The Game Gear primarily ...
, as well as their slogan at the time, "Welcome to the Next Level." It has also been used in the logo for the drum manufacturer Craviotto Drum Company since 2004. It has been used for the Feature Program logo on Winnie the Pooh videos distributed by Walt Disney Home Video. Between 2010 and 2019, the typeface was featured in the uniforms and branding of the
Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. Founded in 1946 i ...
, a basketball team in
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
. It is also used for the logo of the California-based rock band
Cake Cake is a flour confection usually made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elabor ...
. In the TV series ''
Future Man Roy Wilfred Wooten (born October 13, 1957), also known as RoyEl, best known by his stage name Future Man (also written Futureman and known to fans as Futche), is an American musician, inventor and composer. He is best known as a member of jazz ...
'', the time-traveling character Wolf references Copperplate Gothic by name. In the year 1625 he wanted to use the typeface for a pamphlet, and described it as "classic, timeless". In "Super Sunday", season 2 episode 13 of the TV series '' The Middle'', Brick Heck pines over the typeface used in a news article about the
Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...
. He tells his father Mike that the font used is Copperplate Gothic, stating that it is part of the sans serif typeface family, after which he did his signature whisper to himself "sans serif".


Related typefaces

The general style of Copperplate Gothic is known as wedge-serif, due to the very narrow serifs pointing outwards, or as engraving faces due to the similarity with engraved letters. Copperplate Gothic's serifs, which are much less bold than the letters, are small by the standards of the genre. The wedge-serif style is sometimes called Latin, especially in Europe, and was quite popular there for much of the twentieth century. For example, Adrian Frutiger's early design Initiales Président (1952) was intended to be a French competitor; Frutiger in his autobiography noted that they were for makers of type "one of the safest investments. Smaller printers in particular had a steady demand for them." His later Méridien (also called Frutiger Serif) is a text face with some similarities, although this has more normal-sized serifs and a true lower-case.


Notes


References


Citations


Works cited

*Blackwell, Lewis. ''20th Century Type.'' Yale University Press: 2004. . *Fiedl, Frederich, Nicholas Ott and Bernard Stein. ''Typography: An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Through History.'' Black Dog & Leventhal: 1998. . *Jaspert, W. Pincus, W. Turner Berry and A.F. Johnson. ''The Encyclopedia of Type Faces.'' Blandford Press Lts.: 1953, 1983. . *Macmillan, Neil. ''An A–Z of Type Designers.'' Yale University Press: 2006. .


External links


Linotype webpage on Copperplate GothicMyFonts webpage on Copperplate GothicSightings of Copperplate Gothic in the BoldATF's 1923 specimen brochure
showing Copperplate Gothic on pages 334–349 (original book page numbers). Many example settings and variants in the family are shown, with other related fonts also used for similar purposes on succeeding pages. A guide to 'Correct Society Printing for Letterpress Printers' intended to help general printers break into the business card market follows on pages 389–396. {{OS X typefaces Serif typefaces Incised typefaces American Type Founders typefaces Letterpress typefaces Photocomposition typefaces Digital typefaces Typefaces and fonts introduced in 1901 Typefaces designed by Frederic Goudy