Bell Gothic (or better & more recently — Bell Centennial) was desgined for use in telephone books at tiny sizes. Not sure how compatible it will be with your overall design, but should prove to be readable.

Oddly enough Copperplate style type was frequently used to set tiny “boiler plate” text generally seen at the bottom of contracts, warranties, etc.

Now it may seem odd that small caps were used as such, but it was common practice up through the mid-1940s.

Engelhardt’s suggestion is right on with Bell for both the era and use. If that doesn’t jive, try Amplitude.

BTW, haven’t seen Fayette. Can you show us?

Is this the Fayette you’re using?

[link removed by moderator]

No Lauren, that (what you just posted) is Einhorn. Please don’t link to that site. Most of the fonts their are pirated, renamed fonts. I’ve removed the link from your post.

Sorry… having links to illegal wares on this site could lead to lawsuits against Typophile! (what a cruel world it is… thieves sue the righteous just to spite them)

I”ve removed the link from your post.

It still seem to be there, Dan.

Now it may seem odd that small caps were used as such, but it was common practice up through the mid-1940s.

Hah! Maybe they were thinking that nobody would read it anyway. Or, maybe the authors thought it would make their terms & business more stately and prominent.

Hmm. And two seconds later, it is gone. Nevermind.

It’s gone now Steve… I posted my post, then edited Laura’s. Sorry for any confusion :(

Whoa! Cross-post…

This is why I never could do chats! :-)

Dan—

No offense taken. I honestly thought about that (the site’s sketchy credibility) before posting it and was going to just link to a screen grab, but got lazy.

Sorry for being sloppy.
Thanks for cleaning up.

I wonder though... since that’s the only font of that name I could locate (albeit a very quick search), and no one else seems to be familiar with “Fayette” ...perhaps that is what Luka is using?

How about Trade Gothic, it had been around from 1948 and is reasonably legible and there’s also condensed versions available if needed.

Both Sophisto and Stalemate also perform well in small sizes. Have a look yourself at:
http://www.macrhino.com

Hi!

I need similar recommendations.

I’m looking for a typeface for use with 5pt text on ice cream packages. The problem is, that it needs to support estonian, latvian, lithuanian, cyrillic, swedish and english. Actually cyrillic might be from a different typeface but other languages should look the same.

Currently i’m using an opentype version of Arial [ :( ] , because it’s the only font i’ve found that has all the characters i need. Unfortunately, it’s not very economical.

Most of the packages are printed using Flexo technology, which means that dot gain is quite big.

Thanks in advance

v2rv:

I used for a similar project Myriad Pro. It is a clear sans and has all the characters (and I happened to own it...), not very scientific, I know

FF DIN Pro, FF Meta Pro, and FF Dax Pro are OpenType fonts that contain all those character sets in a single font file and should serve well at 5 pt.

Setting very gainy 5pt text requires special attention,
and I don’t think things like Meta and Dax will cut it.
Even something as brutish as Adsans* would serve better,
while Parable for example would be more refined.

* http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/adsans/

Somebody needs to make a list of lo-fi fonts.

hhp