In the end, the novelty wore off and the fashions changed. (I believe this same sort of thing happened again in the nineties with grunge type.) Once phototype took over, the old restrictions were gone and people went crazy, setting type in ways that were previously impossible. I also think tight typography was a reaction to the spacing limitations of metal type. No doubt legibility took a back seat, but legibility is often trumped by style when you are trying to create a dramatic visual impression. A word could be transformed into a graphic expression. You can see this looking at Herb Lubalin’s work in U&lc. When tight typography was done with care, it could be quite beautiful, drawing attention to the shapes and character of the letters. There is no right or wrong in fashion, only in or out. Whereas Avant Garde, no, sorry, it doesn’t have enuff verticality to make any kind of slanting treatment successful. Obliquing works okay for Futura and Avenir (itself based on Futura) due to their tall stems. Just look at other Geometric Sans Serifs, like Futura or Avenir� Not that obliquing is always the solution, but it works well with such a face. Taste is the love of beauty in all its forms. Like tits on a bull-it can be done, but how practical or useful is the result? Does anybody really care? Not enuff to protest these things being done in the first place. Slanted forms are fundamentally antithetical to geometric linear romans. Hrant, I don’t think AG should have an italic or an oblique. Mark Simonson of Saint Paul, Minnesota, is a former art director and graphic designer who now makes his living designing typefaces - several of which are Typographica selections.ĭisclaimer: The Lumberjack Song written by Cleese, Jones, Palin et al, and not yours truly.

See also: Discussion at Typophile : ITC Avant Garde Gothic from E+F with true obliques When they cut corners like they’ve done with Avant Garde Gothic Pro, you wonder if they understand why they were so respected. The ITC brand used to be one of the most respected in the type business. (To understand why simply slanting a font doesn’t work, see my article on fake italics.) This is the version that Bitstream used to sell before ITC cancelled many of its distribution agreements after it was acquired by Agfa Monotype a few years ago. Here is what the 1977 version looked like: Ironically, ITC touts this fact on their website while displaying a simply-slanted version on the same page. I was disappointed, however, to see that they took a huge short cut on the italics: they simply slanted the upright version, in spite of the fact that ITC designed and released optically correct obliques in 1977. They also added a bunch of new ones, though some of them are a bit questionable, like the Celtic-style E. Even better news is that they have reinstated all the ligatures, logotypes, and alternate characters that made Avant Garde famous in the first place. It has all the usual goodies that implies - extended language support and OpenType features. The good news is that this is a family of full-featured OpenType fonts. ITC today announced the release of ITC Avant Garde Gothic Pro. Written by Mark Simonson on October 4, 2005

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