Rockwell is a serif

Serif

In typography, serifs are semi-structural details on the ends of some of the strokes that make up letters and symbols. A typeface with serifs is called a serif typeface . A typeface without serifs is called sans serif or sans-serif, from the French 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....

 belonging to the classification slab serif

Slab serif

In typography, a slab serif typeface is a type of serif typeface characterized by thick, block-like serifs. Serif terminals may be either blunt and angular , or rounded . Slab serif typefaces generally have no bracket...

, or Egyptian, where the serifs are unbracketed and similar in weight to the horizontal strokes of the letters. The typeface was designed at the Monotype foundry's

Monotype Corporation

Monotype Imaging Holdings is a Delaware corporation based in Woburn, Massachusetts and specializing in typesetting and typeface design as well as text and imaging solutions for use with consumer electronics devices. Monotype Imaging Holdings is the owner of Monotype Imaging Inc., Linotype,...

 in-house design studio in 1934. The project was supervised by Frank Hinman Pierpont. Slab serifs are similar in form and in typographic voice to realist sans-serifs like Akzidenz Grotesk

Akzidenz Grotesk

Akzidenz-Grotesk is a grotesque typeface originally released by the Berthold Type Foundry in 1896 under the name Accidenz-Grotesk...

 or Franklin Gothic

Franklin Gothic

Franklin Gothic and its related faces are realist sans-serif typefaces originated by Morris Fuller Benton in 1902. “Gothic” is an increasingly archaic term meaning sans-serif. Franklin Gothic has been used in many advertisements and headlines in newspapers. The typeface continues to maintain a...

. Rockwell is geometric, its upper- and lowercase O more of a circle than an ellipse. A serif at the apex of uppercase A is distinct. The lowercase a is two-story, somewhat incongruous for a geometrically drawn typeface.

Because of its monoweighted stroke, Rockwell is used primarily for display rather than lengthy bodies of text.
Rockwell is based on an earlier, more condensed slab serif design called Litho Antique. The 1933 design for Monotype was supervised by Frank Hinman Pierpont.

The Guinness World Records

Guinness World Records

Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...

 used Rockwell in some of their early-1990s editions. Informational signage at Expo 86

Expo 86

The 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication, or simply Expo '86, was a World's Fair held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from Friday, May 2 until Monday, October 13, 1986...

 made extensive use of the Rockwell typeface. Docklands Light Railway

Docklands Light Railway

The Docklands Light Railway is an automated light metro or light rail system opened on 31 August 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of London...

 also used a bold weight of this typeface in the late 1980s and early '90s.
The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

uses a similar typeface, Stymie Extra Bold, for the headlines and some other typographical uses in its Sunday magazine. The letterform of Stymie Extra Bold's lower-case "t" is highly geometrical, whereas Rockwell's Extra Bold has a rounded letterform. The ascender of the Rockwell "t" is also cut at a sharp angle not to be found in the Stymie typeface.