Folio is a realist sans-serif

Sans-serif

In typography, a sans-serif, sans serif or san serif typeface is one that does not have the small projecting features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. The term comes from the French word sans, meaning "without"....

 typeface

Typeface

In typography, a typeface is the artistic representation or interpretation of characters; it is the way the type looks. Each type is designed and there are thousands of different typefaces in existence, with new ones being developed constantly....

 designed by Konrad Bauer and Walter Baum in 1957 for the Bauersche Gießerei (in English: Bauer foundry). Bauer licensed the design to Founderie Typographique Francaise for sale in France under the name Caravelle.

Like Helvetica

Helvetica

Helvetica is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann.-Visual distinctive characteristics:Characteristics of this typeface are:lower case:square dot over the letter i....

 and Univers

Univers

Univers is the name of a realist sans-serif typeface designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1954.Originally conceived and released by Deberny & Peignot in 1957, the type library was acquired in 1972 by Haas. Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei was later folded into the D...

, which were also released at the same time, it is part of the International Typographic Style

International Typographic Style

The International Typographic Style, also known as the Swiss Style, is a graphic design style developed in Switzerland in the 1950s that emphasizes cleanliness, readability and objectivity. Hallmarks of the style are asymmetric layouts, use of a grid, sans-serif typefaces like Akzidenz Grotesk, and...

 and modeled after Akzidenz-Grotesk. However, Folio is more closely modeled on Akzidenz-Grotesk than the other two, which have larger x-height

X-height

In typography, the x-height or corpus size refers to the distance between the baseline and the mean line in a typeface. Typically, this is the height of the letter x in the font , as well as the u, v, w, and z...

s. Due to good marketing, the typeface experienced moderate success in the United States. The typeface family was extended in 1963, adding an Extra Bold weight and a Bold Condensed width.

The cold type version was issued by Hell AG.

Visual Distinctive Characteristics

Characteristics of this typeface are:

lower case:
square dot over the letter i.
double storey a.

upper case:
the capital Q's tail is centered under the figure, the uppercase J has a slight hook, and there are two versions of uppercase R, one with a straight tail and one with a curved tail.

figures: