Study of Newspaper Fonts Released

Ascender Corporation announced the release of a study on the typefaces that appear on the front pages of America's top daily newspapers. This is the first study of its kind and it identified the most popular typefaces, sources, and the pervasive use of custom fonts.

Elk Grove Village, IL (PRWEB) November 9, 2004 -- Ascender Corporation, specialists in multilingual and custom font development, today announced the release of a study on the use of typefaces on the front pages of America's top daily newspapers. Newspapers use a mix of text and display typefaces in a wide variety of styles to communicate the news and to give each newspaper a unique look and personality. While there are more than 50,000 fonts available in the market today for designers to choose from, the study found that newspapers use a much smaller group to grace their front pages.

Ascender Corp is well-versed in the issues of type and typography at newspapers and other publications. They are also recognized experts in creating fonts for on-screen reading. Tom Rickner, one of Ascender's type designers, is well known for the work he did on the Verdana typefaces for Microsoft. Mr. Rickner presented portions of this study this past weekend at the Poynter Institute's conference dedicated to on-screen reading, held in St. Petersburg, Florida. Tom's talk discussed font technology issues and their impact upon on-screen reading.

Newspapers are evolving from the delivery of their publications not only on newsprint, but also in electronic editions. This junction of newspaper fonts for both print and on-screen reading inspired Ascender Corp to determine what typefaces were currently being used at newspapers.

"Newspapers have new challenges designing and publishing both print and electronic versions" said Bill Davis, the study's author. "Each medium has different font formats and technologies to create and render fonts with optimal legibility. The jury is still out on the best approach to create electronic editions of newspapers in a manner that preserves the look & feel the print edition, particularly regarding maintaining brand identity."

The study found that the 10 most popular typeface families are: Franklin Gothic, Poynter, Futura, Helvetica, Century, Utopia, Times, Nimrod, Bureau and Interstate. Many of these typefaces were designed specifically for newspapers -- the letterforms include features for legibility that address the challenges of reproduction on newsprint.

Additionally the study found each of the top seven daily newspapers use typefaces specifically designed or commissioned on their behalf. Further, 35 of the top 100 daily newspapers use a custom typeface or modified font in addition to retail, off-the-shelf fonts. The use of custom fonts allows publications to strengthen their brand and give a distinct, exclusive quality to their publication.

The fonts used on the front pages in newspapers come from a variety of sources including large, established type foundries, smaller independent type foundries and individual type designers who specialize in custom newspaper fonts.

Copies of the study are available at no charge from Ascender Corp. Those interested should contact Bill Davis at Ascender Corp or send a request via email at newspaperfonts@ascendercorp.com.

About Ascender Corp
Ascender Corporation is a Chicago-based company specializing in multilingual, custom font development, licensing and typographic problem solving. The company's founders have been involved in developing some of the most important and influential fonts in use today in computers, phones and printers. Ascender has a talented team with the expertise to solve complex font technology issues, the imagination to create font branding solutions, and the initiative to create value for our customers.

Contact
Bill Davis
Ascender Corporation
25 Northwest Point Blvd, Suite 975
Elk Grove Village, IL 60007 USA
Phone: (847) 357 0730 ext. 10
Fax: (847) 357 0731
Web: http://www.ascendercorp.com
Email: press@ascendercorp.com

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