there's actually a thread very similar to this on here too...since i'm new too... i don't know how to find it. i'd say look at some house industries fonts like Chalet and Neutraface, those are the first two that come to mind. Serif Gothic might be worth a look (although its a bit different in character than the others you mentioned).

neutraface is one of my recent favourites but serif gothic is a great suggestion and has much more flair (for lack of a less-wanky word) than i had originally looked for. thats a contender!

thanks!

how about
Neuzeit Grotesk
URW Grotesk

No flair, no fuss.

Why is Avenir not an option? IOW, what is it about Avenir that takes it off the table?

What kind of a station is it?

FF Super Grotesk?

Robert

I second the FF Super Grotesk recommendation. The alternate 'a' and 'g' give it a little more warmth than Futura.

What exactly is wrong with futura?

On a certain level, Futura is a caricature of type, an insult.

hhp

"On a certain level, Futura is a caricature of type, an insult."

I'm wary of historical arguments against typefaces. If you don't like it, tell me what's wrong with it.

What exactly is wrong with Futura?

What, except the fact that it's overused to the point of nausea, that its geometrical character shapes and the resulting word shapes are not reader-friendly at all, that it has totally outlived its relevance, that it gets specified because people mistake complacency and lack of imagination for “refinement” and “timeless beauty”, that the most often used digitization (Adobe's) is a disgrace, that its condensed counterpart looks ridiculously bad, ... ?

Errr ... except all that, nothing, really. There hasn't been designed anything better these past seventy-odd years, so I think Futura is a perfect choice. ;-)

What about Nobel?

About Futura I quoute Hrant "It's a feature, not a bug"

Of course Futura has a mediocre performance as a text face compared to most classical roman text faces (altough I read once a whole book set in Futura and it didn't annoyed me as much as reading another book tightly set in Caslon 540).

Futura still has a lot of character which seems unchallenged today despite the various attempts to substitute it with some other "improved faces" like the boring Univers like Avenir.

I alsho think that the more classical structure of Futura (and it's consequent elegance) is true to a geometric sans serif as much as to a greek or roman rustical inscription. Most of the other geometric sans serf are not elegant at all.

Too bad it's overused but people is much less sensitive to this than us.

Héctor

What, except the fact that it’s overused to the point of nausea, that its geometrical character shapes and the resulting word shapes are not reader-friendly at all, that it has totally outlived its relevance, that it gets specified because people mistake complacency and lack of imagination for “refinement” and “timeless beauty”

But those flaws all apply to Avant Garde, and would to Avenir if it were old enough to be overused. They are inherent in the design of all regular geometric sans. At least Futura has the sense to avoid Avant Garde's absurdly large x-height.

Once you've decided to use something "Futura-like", you're basically assuming most of Futura's flaws anyway, so you might as well go ahead and use it. If you have specific problems with Futura (like "I prefer two-storey 'a's") then please voice them.

that the most often used digitization (Adobe’s) is a disgrace

So use Bitstream.

FF Kievit