Gothic is an American term for Grotesque. See Mac McGrew American metal typefaces of the twentieth century. Mac McGrew (Delaware, USA: Oak Knoll Books, 1986, 1993) ISBN: 0-938768-34-4 (bound) ISBN: 0-938768-39-5 (pbk.)

He explains the Gothic term.

Alternate Gothic is an American ATF inspired/derivative typeface from Akzidenz Grotesque. McGrew has very good examples of that and Lightline Gothic, News Gothic and the true Franklin Gothic which closely followed Alternate Gothic.

Mac McGrew 1986,
Gothic, the purists say, is Blackletter or what we more often call Old English. But the name is so firmly established in American usage as meaning a plan block letter without serifs or hairline, that we must accept that meaning. Also, it is part of many type names. But we prefer to go further, and reserve the term gothic for the traditional forms, and san serif for the modified forms orginating in Germany with the Bauhaus movement of the 1920s. Our preferrred general term is serifless.

first portion of text from p. 155.

I don’t think this is an official distinction by any means, but I’ve sensed a trend to apply the term “grotesque” to old victorian and wood-type sans serifs (in the Railroad Gothic / Poplar / Champion / Knockout style), “gothic” to more refined versions of the same basic structure (Akzidenz, Alternate Gothic, Franklin Gothic, Lightline Gothic, News Gothic, Trade Gothic, et al) and “neogrotesque” to sans-serifs refined in the Swiss style (such as Folio, Helvetica, Univers and the like).

Has anyone else sensed a similar distinction?

David Thometz

> American ATF inspired/derivative typeface from Akzidenz Grotesque.

I don’t see how Franklin Gothic has much to do with Akzidenz Grotesque. Franklin Gothic has more thick-thin contrast, and the two story g, the s doesn’t close on itself, the top terminal of the c is fatter than the bottom, etc etc.

Alternate Gothic is condensed, and, looking at my old edition of Jaspert,resembles the condensed versions of Akzidenz (Standard),except with the two story g. But the condensed versions of Akzidenz (Standard) don’t look much like the regular and wider versions of Akzidenz, which seem to be the basis for Helvetica.

It may well be that Benton had German sources for Alternate Gothic. But Franklin seems to me very unlikely to have come from Akzidenz. More likely a redrawing of existing American faces, I would guess.

Is there an historian out there who can give us the correct story?

I [would] avoid “gothic” (in type).

hhp