Erbar (typeface)
Encyclopedia
In typography
, Erbar or Erbar-Grotesk was the first geometric sans-serif typeface
ever created. Designer Jakob Erbar's
aim was to design a printing type which would be free of all individual characteristics, possess thoroughly legible letter forms, and be a purely typographic creation. His conclusion was that this could only work if the type form was developed from a fundamental element, the circle.
foundry of Frankfurt, Germany, with machine composition matrices later being offered by German and then American Linotype. Erbar was later exported to the United States and sold by the Continental Type Founders Association
. A digital version is sold today by Linotype.
Erbar was cast in four weights with italic and condensed faces. Other variants were offered:
, Metro, Vogue, Spartan
, Twentieth Century
, and Century Gothic
among others. Of these, Futura proved to be the most successful and this, along with Jakob Erbar's early death, the small size of Erbar's Ludwig & Mayer Foundry and the international reach of Futura's Bauer Type Foundry
, lead to the misapprehension that Futura, and not Erbar, was the first of the geometric sans-serif faces.
Typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading , adjusting the spaces between groups of letters and adjusting the space between pairs of letters...
, Erbar or Erbar-Grotesk was the first geometric sans-serif typeface
Typeface
In typography, a typeface is the artistic representation or interpretation of characters; it is the way the type looks. Each type is designed and there are thousands of different typefaces in existence, with new ones being developed constantly....
ever created. Designer Jakob Erbar's
Jakob Erbar
Jakob Erbar was a German professor of graphic design and type designer. Trained as a typesetter for the Dumont-Schauberg Printing Works, before studying under Fritz Helmut Ehmcke and Anna Simons. Erbar went on to teach in 1908 at the Städtischen Berufsschule and from 1919 to his death at the...
aim was to design a printing type which would be free of all individual characteristics, possess thoroughly legible letter forms, and be a purely typographic creation. His conclusion was that this could only work if the type form was developed from a fundamental element, the circle.
The Font
Erbar was originally cast by the Ludwig & MayerLudwig & Mayer
Ludwig & Mayer was a German type foundry in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Many important designers worked for the Ludwig and Mayer type foundry, including Heinrich Jost, Karlgeorg Hoefer, Helmut Matheis, and most notably Jakob Erbar, whose Erbar Book was one of the first geometric sans-serif...
foundry of Frankfurt, Germany, with machine composition matrices later being offered by German and then American Linotype. Erbar was later exported to the United States and sold by the Continental Type Founders Association
Continental Type Founders Association
Continental Type Founders Association was founded by Melbert Brinckerhoff Cary Jr. in 1925 to distribute foundry type imported from European foundries. The influence of more modern European type design was thus felt in the United States for the first time, and American foundries responded by...
. A digital version is sold today by Linotype.
Erbar was cast in four weights with italic and condensed faces. Other variants were offered:
- Lumina, an open face version.
- Lux, a version with contrasting outlines.
- Phospohor, a bold, in-line version.
Influence on other typefaces
The success of Erbar inspired the creation of many new geometric sans-serif faces by competing foundries including FuturaFutura (typeface)
In typography, Futura is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed in 1927 by Paul Renner. It is based on geometric shapes that became representative visual elements of the Bauhaus design style of 1919–1933...
, Metro, Vogue, Spartan
Spartan (typeface)
Spartan is a geometric sans-serif typeface created by staff designers of Mergenthaler Linotype Company as a direct competitor to Bauer's Futura. The face was made for machine composition by Linotype, while identical foundry type was issued by American Type Founders...
, Twentieth Century
Twentieth Century (typeface)
Twentieth Century is a geometric sans-serif foundry typeface designed by Sol Hess for Lanston Monotype as a competitor to the successful Futura typeface, but with a larger x-height and more even stroke width...
, and Century Gothic
Century Gothic
Century Gothic is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed for Monotype Imaging in 1991. It is a digital typeface that has never been made into actual foundry type...
among others. Of these, Futura proved to be the most successful and this, along with Jakob Erbar's early death, the small size of Erbar's Ludwig & Mayer Foundry and the international reach of Futura's Bauer Type Foundry
Bauer Type Foundry
The Bauer Type Foundry was a German type foundry founded in 1837 by Johann Christian Bauer in Frankfurt am Main. Noted typeface designers, among them Lucian Bernhard, Konrad Friedrich Bauer , Walter Baum, Heinrich Jost, Imre Reiner, Friedrich Hermann Ernst Schneidler, Emil Rudolf Weiß, and Heinrich...
, lead to the misapprehension that Futura, and not Erbar, was the first of the geometric sans-serif faces.