I haven't used either one, but I would go with Benton, because of the wide range of widths and weights and because it's been used in quite a few publications.

Benton Sans has been expanded and it seems redrawn (how much is not clear on the Font Bureau web site) by Cyrus Highsmith. It was used for the TypeCon convention booklet by Armin Vit, and just looked awesome, with the different weights working together beautifully.

> the different weights

The width of the left vertical stem of the capital H may be used as a measurement for the different weights.

see www.sanskritweb.net/temporary/stem-width-1.jpg

A peculiarity of the old News Gothic (and also of the later Trade Gothic) was that the normal weight of News Gothic was thinner than the normal weight of other fonts, but thicker than the light weight of other fonts.

If we apply a UPM of 1000 units, then the normal weight of Helvetica has a stem width of 97 units (or 9.7 % of the em), and the light weight of Helvetica has a stem width of 68 units (or 6.8 % of the em), whereas the normal weight of the old News Gothics is exactly in-between. For instance, the normal weight of News Gothic BT is 79 units (and for example the normal weight of Trade Gothic LT is 80 units).

But the normal weight of Benton Sans has 88 units and therefore is too thick.

see www.sanskritweb.net/temporary/stem-width-2.jpg

If you prefer the in-between weight peculiarity of the old News Gothic font, you should use old digitisations, e.g. News Gothic BT, which is a clone of the old Linotype News Gothic.

>But [...] Benton Sans [...] is too thick.

And that's not all!

Cheers!

...Linotype News Gothic.

News Gothic was an ATF face. Linotype's version is called Trade Gothic.

> News Gothic was an ATF face. Linotype’s version is called Trade Gothic.

At the time, when Carter, Berlow and other former Linotype employees ripped off the Linotype library, it included both News Gothic and Trade Gothic.

>At the time, [...]

What time was that? 10/10/84 10:15:23.07 until 10/10/84 10:15:23.08?

Your statistical evaluation of what's 'good' and 'bad' is not much better than your evaluation of type talent.

Cheers!

Uli, we all know your viewpoint on how almost everyone is a forger, as you have repeated it ad nauseum. Give it a rest when it's not on topic.

It is the "book" weight, not the "normal" in Benton Sans that seems to most closely match the original News Gothic.

The advantage to Benton Sans is that the family expands across a range of widths. News Gothic revivals can’t get you there unless you want to start cobbling together a mix of Gothic faces, which would be fun, but hard to explain to clients.

I wish that there was a cobbled chart of all the gothics, just for reference. That would be sweet.

@DanGayle: Let's make one! We'll host it here for everyone's reference. Who's in?

Based on what I saw on the Font Bureau page that was linked I prefer News Gothic #2. There is something about the way the letters are drawn that I like more than Benton Sans. It seems a little more graceful and dynamic. That's my personal opinion though. If I were you I'd take a look at how each is drawn and decide which one you think looks better... I think that is what is REALLY important.

I vote for Benton Sans, and I have used both. It's more flexible.

But I do love News Gothic as well, especially paired with Franklin Gothic.

pbc

@Jared
I wouldn't know where to start. I'm sure James, hint hint, would know where to start :p

In metal Lightline Gothic, News Gothic, Alternate Gothic and Franklin Gothic work together really well. But now that I think about it I don’t know if the digital revivals would work together in the same way because so many have been tweaked to work as families on their own. I’ll suggest to Paul Shaw that we comp them together in his next book.

New thread?