Distinguishing marks:
no serifs
vertical axis of curves
upper lengths often equal capital letter height
thickness of lines nearly equal (optically linear)
Arised in the first half of the 19th century
Old name: Gothic
Well-known representatives:
Akzidenz-Grotesk, Avant Garde Gothic, Berthold Imago, Erbar, Franklin Gothic, Frutiger, Futura, Folio, Gill Sans, Helvetica, Kabel, Lightline Gothic, Neuzeit-Grotesk, Univers
To this group belong all roman types which inferring from their distinguishing marks, cannot be put into the groups I to VI.
Examples:
Arnold Böcklin, Blur, Exocet, Mambo Bold, Moonbase Alpha, Oriente
Distinguishing marks:
They look as if they were written with quill or brush
often with alternating stroke, depending on position and writing tool.
often sweeping first letters (Capital letters)
the small letters often have linking strokes
Types that arised from the so-called »latin« school and chamber scripts from individual scripts and from artistic type blueprints.
Original writing tools: pointed quill, broad quill, round quill, brush or chalk.
Examples:
Ariston, Ballantines, Berthold-Script, Commercial Script, Diskus, Englische Schreibschrift, Künstlerschreibschrift, Lithographia, Mistral, Slogan
Distinguishing marks:
Elements of groups I-VI
changed by hand-written quill-flow
Roman types that are changed in a personal way and hand-written by a type-artist. They don't show any strictly stylistic systematics like all other roman types, but emphasized hand-written originality.
Examples:
Arkona, Delphin, Dom Casual, Express, Impuls, Poppl-College, Post-Antiqua, Vivaldi
(german and gothical types)
Distinguishing marks:
all curves are broken
The types look as if they were written with a broad quill
partly high contrast bold/fine
partly fine beginning and ending dashes
oblique dash within »e«
More infos about black letters:
www.cooper.edu/art/lubalin/bletter.html
Sampler-group for all broken types. Nowadays they are only rarely used (mainly as headlines).
According to their distinguishing marks you divide up in:
a) Gothical
all curved elements of the small letters are broken. The letters show a change between bold and fine lines.
Examples:
Caslon-Gothic, Black gothic, Manuscript-gothic, Wilhelm-Klingspor-Gothic
The round gothical bases on the Rotunda of the early times of printing. Arising and development of round gothical above all in Italy.
Examples:
Tannenberg, Wallau, Weiß-Rundgotisch
c) Schwabacher
Handwriting and printing type of the 15th century, came up in southern Germany. Broad and sweeping effect of the letters, more round and open as the gothical.
Examples:
Alte Schwabacher, Renata
Arised in the 16th century
Slim and elegant type coming from the cultural circle of emperor (Kaiser) Maximilian
Examples:
Black Fraktur, Cabinet-Fraktur, New Fraktur, Unger-Fraktur, Walbaum-Fraktur, Zentenar-Fraktur
e) Fraktur-variants
Here you find all broken types that differ after their flow from the groups Xa to Xd.
Examples:
Breda-gothical, Broad Chambers, Rhapsodie
All non-latin types (like greek, hebraic, kyrillian, arabic, japanese or also picture-types) are classified here.