Neuland is a German

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, ...

that was designed in 1923 by

Rudolf Koch Rudolf Koch (20 November 1876 – 9 April 1934) was a German type designer, professor, and a master of lettering, calligraphy, typography and illustration. Commonly known for his typefaces created for the Klingspor Type Foundry, his most widely ...

for the

Klingspor Type Foundry The Klingspor Type Foundry was a German hot metal type foundry established in 1892 when Carl Klingspor bought out the Rudhard’sche Foundry of Offenbach. His sons, Karl and younger brother Wilhelm, took on the business in 1904, renaming the fo ...

. Koch designed it by directly carving each size of each letter into metal. The original typeface thus had a different appearance in each of its sizes, something not followed in digital versions where the same font serves for every print size. While originally intended as a form of modern

blackletter Blackletter (sometimes black letter or black-letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule or Gothic type, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century. It continued to be commonly used for ...

, Neuland has come instead to be used as a signifier of the "exotic" or "primitive", such as in the logos for

Trader Vic's Trader Vic's is a restaurant and tiki bar chain headquartered in Emeryville, California, United States. Victor Jules Bergeron, Jr. (December 10, 1902 in San Francisco – October 11, 1984 in Hillsborough, California) founded a chain of Polynes ...

Natural American Spirit Natural American Spirit, often referred to simply as American Spirit, is an American brand of cigarettes and other tobacco products, currently owned by Reynolds American and manufactured by the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company. History The com ...

cigarettes, promotional materials for ''

The Lion King ''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical coming-of-age drama film directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, produced by Don Hahn, and written by Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, and Linda Woolverton. Produced by Walt Disney ...

'', and the ''

Jurassic Park ''Jurassic Park'', later referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton, centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of De-extinction#Cloning, cloned dinosaurs. It bega ...

'' films (which use the "inline" variant, so named because each letter has a thin line inside); the association of this "exotic" or "primitive" implication with African or African-American themes has been criticized. Neuland Inline is a common variant of Neuland, perhaps more common than the standard variety.

Monotype Monotyping is a type of printmaking made by drawing or painting on a smooth, non-absorbent surface. The surface, or matrix, was historically a copper etching plate, but in contemporary work it can vary from zinc or glass to acrylic glass. The ...

licensed Neuland under the name of 'Othello' (released in 1928) with the agreement that it would not be sold in Germany, Austria or Switzerland.

Phosphor A phosphor is a substance that exhibits the phenomenon of luminescence; it emits light when exposed to some type of radiant energy. The term is used both for fluorescent or phosphorescent substances which glow on exposure to ultraviolet or ...

, by

Jakob Erbar Jakob Erbar (8 February 1878 – 7 January 1935) was a German professor of graphic design and a type designer. Erbar trained as a typesetter for the Dumont-Schauberg Printing Works before studying under Fritz Helmut Ehmcke and Anna Simons. Erbar ...

, was a contemporary competitor that has a more regular shape. Phosphate, an unofficial revival of Phosphor created by Red Rooster Fonts, is bundled with OS X. Nick Curtis's JungleFever typeface is based on Neuland.

References

External links

A collection of digital Neuland varieties
Display typefaces Letterpress typefaces Photocomposition typefaces Typefaces and fonts introduced in 1923 Digital typefaces Typefaces designed by Rudolf Koch {{typ-stub