Bank Gothic
Encyclopedia
Bank Gothic is a rectilinear geometric sans-serif typeface designed by Morris Fuller Benton
for the American Type Founders
(ATF) in 1930. The typeface is an exploration of geometric forms, and is contemporary with the rectilinear slab serif typeface City
by Georg Trump. The typeface also bears comparison with late nineteenth century engraving faces.
In 1980s, Linotype created a digital version that includes small caps characters to map onto the lowercase keys of the keyboard. At the time, Linotype only digitized the medium weight of the family, and no PostScript version has been made.
, §, ƒ
, Ç
. A base is also added to the numeral 1.
The font family comes in 3 weights and 2 widths. OpenType features include small caps, old style figures, proportional lining figures. It supporting ISO Adobe 2, Adobe CE, Latin extended Character sets.
in TV series, such as 24
, Battlestar Galactica
, Drake and Josh, The King of Queens
, ER
, NCIS
, Stargate SG-1
, Robot Wars
, The Event
, Falling Skies
and Terra Nova
. The Amazing Race
replaced Microgramma with Bank Gothic as the main font used in the show. The sitcom Just Shoot Me also used the font for its title logo and credit type from the start of the third season until midway through its fifth season.
(2004), Hancock
(2008), Jumper
(2008), Eagle Eye (2008), Knowing
(2009), The International
(2009), X-Men Origins: Wolverine
(2009), and A Perfect Getaway
(2009).
, Descent: FreeSpace, FreeSpace 2
, StarCraft
, Hitman: Contracts
, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
, and Call of Duty: Black Ops
. The typeface was used extensively in packaging and advertising of Bungie's Marathon series, and entire manuals were laid out in Bank Gothic. A derivative of Bank Gothic is used as the official Nintendo GameCube
logo typeface.
Some of the games from the Grand Theft Auto
series, most notably Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
and Grand Theft Auto IV
also make use of the font for packaging, manuals and various game interface elements.
. It was also for a time on Granada Television
's regional news program, Granada Tonight (now called Granada Reports
).
Morris Fuller Benton
Morris Fuller Benton was an influential American typeface designer who headed the design department of the American Type Founders , for which he was the chief type designer from 1900 to 1937...
for the American Type Founders
American Type Founders
American Type Founders was a business trust created in 1892 by the merger of 23 type foundries, representing about 85% of all type manufactured in the United States...
(ATF) in 1930. The typeface is an exploration of geometric forms, and is contemporary with the rectilinear slab serif typeface City
City (typeface)
City is a slab serif typeface designed by Georg Trump , and released in 1930 by the Berthold type foundry in Berlin, Germany. Though classified as a slab serif, City displays a strong modernist influence in its geometric structure of right angles and opposing round corners. The typeface takes...
by Georg Trump. The typeface also bears comparison with late nineteenth century engraving faces.
In 1980s, Linotype created a digital version that includes small caps characters to map onto the lowercase keys of the keyboard. At the time, Linotype only digitized the medium weight of the family, and no PostScript version has been made.
Bank Gothic Pro
In 2010 FontHaus http://www.fonthaus.com released an updated revival of the original Bank Gothic complete with a lowercase, a complement of small caps and a new suite of punctuation glyphs. The family consists of Light, Medium and Bold weights in both a regular and a condensed style. The new lowercase characters did not exist with the original release and were modeled after many similar Morris Fuller Benton designs released by The American Type Founders Company in the 1930s. Bank Gothic is a registered trademark of Grosse Pointe Group, LLC, and is licensed exclusively through DsgnHaus, Inc. d/b/a FontHaus.DeLuxe Gothic
In 2003 letterforms artist Michael Doret began work on DeLuxe Gothic—a derivative version of American Type Founder's Bank Gothic. Unlike the 1930s original, Doret’s font contains lowercase characters. The DeLuxe Gothic Family was released in OpenType format in 2010 by Alphabet Soup Type Founders with both regular and condensed styles as well as traditional shortcaps. DeLuxe Gothic was the name originally used by the Intertype Corporation for its version of Morris Fuller Benton's Bank Gothic. Prior to its September 8, 2010 release, it was known as Bank Gothic AS.Morris Sans
In 2005, Linotype editor Dan Reynolds began work on the Morris Sans family, a revised and extended Bank Gothic. The revised design includes lowercase letters, and redesigned letters %, ‰, ØØ
Ø — minuscule: "ø", is a vowel and a letter used in the Danish, Faroese, Norwegian and Southern Sami languages.It's mostly used as a representation of mid front rounded vowels, such as ø œ, except for Southern Sami where it's used as an [oe] diphtong.The name of this letter is the same as the sound...
, §, ƒ
ƒ
The letter ' is a letter of the Latin alphabet, based on the italic form of f; or on its regular form with a descender hook added...
, Ç
Ç
is a Latin script letter, used in the Albanian, Azerbaijani, Ligurian, Tatar, Turkish, Turkmen, Kurdish and Zazaki alphabets. This letter also appears in Catalan, French, Friulian, Occitan and Portuguese as a variant of the letter “c”...
. A base is also added to the numeral 1.
The font family comes in 3 weights and 2 widths. OpenType features include small caps, old style figures, proportional lining figures. It supporting ISO Adobe 2, Adobe CE, Latin extended Character sets.
TV series
Bank Gothic is often used for opening creditsOpening credits
In a motion picture, television program, or video game, the opening credits are shown at the very beginning and list the most important members of the production. They are now usually shown as text superimposed on a blank screen or static pictures, or sometimes on top of action in the show. There...
in TV series, such as 24
24 (TV series)
24 is an American television series produced for the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration...
, Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)
Battlestar Galactica is an American military science fiction television series, and part of the Battlestar Galactica franchise. The show was developed by Ronald D. Moore as a re-imagining of the 1978 Battlestar Galactica television series created by Glen A. Larson...
, Drake and Josh, The King of Queens
The King of Queens
The King of Queens is an American sitcom that originally ran on CBS from September 21, 1998, to May 14, 2007.This show was produced by Hanley Productions and CBS Productions , CBS Paramount Television ,and CBS Television Studios in association with Columbia TriStar Television , and Sony Pictures...
, ER
ER (TV series)
ER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
, NCIS
NCIS (TV series)
NCIS, formerly known as NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, is an American police procedural drama television series revolving around a fictional team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which conducts criminal investigations involving the U.S...
, Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1 is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate franchise. The show, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, is based on the 1994 feature film Stargate by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich...
, Robot Wars
Robot Wars (TV series)
Robot Wars is a British game show modelled on a US-based competition of the same name. It was broadcast on BBC Two from 1998 until 2003, with its final series broadcast on Five in 2003 and 2004. Additional series were filmed for specific sectors of the global market, including two series of Robot...
, The Event
The Event (TV series)
The Event is an American television series containing elements of science fiction, action/adventure and political allegory. The show was created by Nick Wauters, and premiered on NBC on September 20, 2010...
, Falling Skies
Falling Skies
Falling Skies is an American science fiction dramatic television series created by Robert Rodat and produced by Steven Spielberg. The series picks up six months into a world devastated by an alien invasion...
and Terra Nova
Terra Nova (TV series)
Terra Nova is an American science fiction drama television series that airs on Fox on Monday nights. It premiered September 26, 2011 with a one-and-a-half-hour episode...
. The Amazing Race
The Amazing Race
The Amazing Race is a reality television game show in which teams of two people, who have some form of a preexisting personal relationship, race around the world in competition with other teams...
replaced Microgramma with Bank Gothic as the main font used in the show. The sitcom Just Shoot Me also used the font for its title logo and credit type from the start of the third season until midway through its fifth season.
Movies
Bank Gothic has been used heavily in posters and advertising for recent movies, particularly action movies; it has been used for either the title or the promotional materials of The Day After TomorrowThe Day After Tomorrow
The Day After Tomorrow is a 2004 American science-fiction disaster film that depicts the catastrophic effects of global warming in a series of extreme weather events that usher in global cooling which leads to a new ice age. The film did well at the box office, grossing $542,771,772 internationally...
(2004), Hancock
Hancock (film)
Hancock is a 2008 American action-comedy superhero film directed by Peter Berg and starring Will Smith, Jason Bateman, and Charlize Theron. It tells the story of a vigilante superhero, John Hancock from Los Angeles whose reckless actions routinely cost the city millions of dollars...
(2008), Jumper
Jumper (film)
Jumper is a 2008 American science fiction film, loosely based on the 1992 science fiction novel of the same name by Steven Gould. The film is directed by Doug Liman and stars Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Jamie Bell, Rachel Bilson, Max Thieriot, AnnaSophia Robb, and Diane Lane...
(2008), Eagle Eye (2008), Knowing
Knowing (film)
Knowing is a 2009 American-British science fiction film directed by Alex Proyas and starring Nicolas Cage. The project was originally attached to a number of directors under Columbia Pictures, but it was placed in turnaround and eventually picked up by Escape Artists. Production was financially...
(2009), The International
The International (film)
The International is a 2009 thriller film directed by Tom Tykwer. The film follows an Interpol agent and an American attorney who investigate corruption within the IBBC, a fictional merchant bank based in Luxembourg. It serves organized crime and corrupt governments as a banker and as an arms...
(2009), X-Men Origins: Wolverine
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a 2009 American action film based on the Marvel Comics' fictional character Wolverine. The fourth installment in the X-Men film series, it was released worldwide on May 1, 2009...
(2009), and A Perfect Getaway
A Perfect Getaway
A Perfect Getaway is a 2009 American psychological thriller film written and directed by David Twohy, and stars Timothy Olyphant, Milla Jovovich, Kiele Sanchez and Steve Zahn. The film was shot in Puerto Rico and Hawaii, and was released on August 7, 2009 in United States, and on August 12 in the...
(2009).
Video games
It has also been used in the video games: GoldenEye 007, 30 Seconds to Mars30 Seconds to Mars
30 Seconds to Mars is an American rock band from Los Angeles, formed in 1998. Since 2007, the band has consisted of actor Jared Leto , Shannon Leto and Tomo Miličević...
, Descent: FreeSpace, FreeSpace 2
FreeSpace 2
FreeSpace 2 is a 1999 space combat simulation computer game developed by Volition, Inc. as the sequel to Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War. It was completed ahead of schedule in less than a year, and released to great critical acclaim...
, StarCraft
StarCraft
StarCraft is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The first game of the StarCraft series was released for Microsoft Windows on 31 March 1998. With more than 11 million copies sold worldwide as of February 2009, it is one of the best-selling...
, Hitman: Contracts
Hitman: Contracts
Hitman: Contracts is a stealth game developed by IO Interactive and published by Eidos Interactive. It is the third entry in the Hitman series, followed by Hitman: Blood Money....
, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a 2007 first-person shooter video game, developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii. A handheld game was made for the Nintendo DS. The game was released in North America, Australia, and...
, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 video game consoles and the Microsoft Windows operating system. Officially announced on February 11, 2009, the game was released worldwide on...
, and Call of Duty: Black Ops
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Call of Duty: Black Ops is a first-person shooter video game developed by Treyarch, published by Activision and released worldwide on November 9, for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii consoles, with a separate version for Nintendo DS developed by n-Space. Announced on April 30, 2010,...
. The typeface was used extensively in packaging and advertising of Bungie's Marathon series, and entire manuals were laid out in Bank Gothic. A derivative of Bank Gothic is used as the official Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
logo typeface.
Some of the games from the Grand Theft Auto
Grand Theft Auto (series)
Grand Theft Auto is a multi-award-winning British video game series created in the United Kingdom by Dave Jones, then later by brothers Dan Houser and Sam Houser, and game designer Zachary Clarke. It is primarily developed by Edinburgh based Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games...
series, most notably Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 open world action video game developed by British games developer Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the third 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise, the fifth original console release and eighth game overall...
and Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto IV is a 2008 open world action video game published by Rockstar Games, and developed by British games developer Rockstar North. It has been released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles, and for the Windows operating system...
also make use of the font for packaging, manuals and various game interface elements.
Television news
The typeface is a popular font for the use of digital on-screen graphics for local and national television news, seeing heavy use by the stations owned by Hearst Television since the 1990s, along with CBS NewsCBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
. It was also for a time on Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
's regional news program, Granada Tonight (now called Granada Reports
Granada Reports
Granada Reports is the flagship regional news programme of ITV franchisee Granada, presented by Tony Morris and Lucy Meacock, and serving the North West of England and the Isle of Man....
).