FontShop presents: The 100 all time Best Fonts since Guternberg, as selected by their users and an international jury.

How we rated the fonts:
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The review of immeasurable qualities is tricky. How does one measure aesthetic quality, the benefit of an item, its value to humanity?  How does one determine a list of the best fonts of all time? We tried to do this by using on objective and two subjective measurement patters weighted as follows:

FontShop Sales Figures: 40%
Historical Value/Meaning: 30%
Aesthetic Qualities: 30%

The evaluation consisted exclusively of licensed or ‘commercial’ fonts.  Free fonts or operating system fonts were not considered, nor were fonts integral to standard software (i.e. Arial, Verdana, etc.). Font variations, which over the centuries have been individually interpreted by various Foundries, were uniquely evaluated as a class and the best variant was entered into the main judging process.


The Judges:
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Roger Black (Danilo Black, Inc., USA)
With David Berlow, design consultant Roger Black founded Font Bureau in Boston in 1989. Later, Roger was Chief Creative Officer of Circle.com and is now Danilo Black. Being an early adopter of the Internet has never stopped developing and redesigning magazines and newspapers. Personal top Ten:

1.  Centaur
2.  Egiziano
3.  Big Caslon
4.  Bureau Grotesque
5.  Bembo
6.  Bulmer
7.  Ionic No. 5
8.  Kennerly
9.  Clarendon
10. Parkinson

Stephen Coles (Typographica, USA)
Stephen “Stewf” Coles is editor of the online typography journal Typographica where he writes about design and new font releases and moderates the rantings of hundreds of ravenous type freaks. Personal top Ten:

1.  Amplitude
2.  FF Scala
3.  Thesis
4.  Minion
5.  Georgia / Verdana
6.  Knockout
7.  Bickham Script
8.  Klavika
9.  Interstate
10. Helvetica

Jan Middendorp (Publizist, Berlin)
Jan was also the editor of Druk, a magazine about type and visual culture, and he edited and designed for FontShop. After Druk fused with two other FontShop publications into a new magazine called "96", Jan became one of the editors of that publication. In the past, Jan has edited magazines about theatre and dance, as well as newsletters for banks, and insurance companies. Personal top Ten:

1.  Ruse
2.  PMN Caecilia
3.  Tyfa
4.  FF Quadraat
5.  FF Kievit
6.  FF Strada
7.  FF Cocon
8.  Dispatch / Stainless
9.  Rumba
10. The Shire Types

Veronika Elsner (Elsner + Flake, Hamburg)
In March 1986 Veronika Elsner and Günther Flake founded their company Elsner+Flake Design Studios after ten years of freelance experience in the field of type design, typography, and digitizing of fonts and logos. The company, located in Hamburg, Germany, has created an impressive library of more than 2500 digital fonts. Personal top Ten:

1.  Frutiger
2.  Zapf Renaissance
3.  Swift
4.  Today
5.  Petras Script
6.  Syntax
7.  ITC Stone
8.  Imago
9.  Formata
10. Lucidia

Ralf Herrmann (TypoForum, Weimar)
Ralf Herrmann studies Communication Design at Bauhaus-University Weimar. He is the webmaster of www.typografie.info, the well-known independent web site dedicated to typography and fonts in Germany. Herrmann is founder of a web design agency in Germany, writes books about fonts and typography and is advisor of FontShop Berlin. Personal top Ten:

1.  FS Clerkenwell
2.  FF Strada
3.  DTL Prokyon
4.  Trinité
5.  Syntax
6.  Andulka
7.  Fromata
8.  Fedra Sans
9.  Canapé
10. LTR Salmiak

Bertram Schmid-Friderichs (Type Directors Club, Mainz)
For the past 20 years, Bertram Schmidt-Friderichs, typographer, printer and publisher, managed the Type Directors Club Exhibition in Germany with great enthusiasm and success. In his print shop, he has manufactured together with his wife Karin about 25 titles on typography and graphic design every year, many of them internationally rewarded, founding his reputation to be the leading publishing house in this field in Germany. Personal top Ten:

1.  Bodoni
2.  Frutiger
3.  Caslon
4.  Garamond
5.  Univers
6.  DTL Prokyon
7.  Gill Sans
8.  Syntax
9.  Clarendon
10. Zentenar Fraktur

Claudia Guminski (FontShop, Berlin), Marketing und Redaktion)
Claudia Guminski is a member of the editorial and marketing team for FontShop. She has been developing new font hit lists daily for the last nine years. She has the help of a source that's unique in the type universe - the knowledge of her brilliant colleagues at Font Shop. Personal top: 
1.  FF Magda Clean
2.  FF Absara
3.  Neutraface
4.  FF Dax
5.  Mrs Eaves
6.  FF Profile
7.  Thesis
8.  FF Nexus
9.  Ed Interlock
10. Dispatch


And now the list:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rank | Font Name | [Date Designed - Designed By]

1.   Helvetica     [1957 - Max Miedinger]
2.   Garamond     [1530 - Claude Garamond]
3.   Frutiger     [1977 - Adrian Frutiger]
4.   Bodoni     [1970 - Giambattista Bodoni]
5.   Futura     [1927 - Paul Renner]
6.   Times     [1931 - Stanley Morison]
7.   Akzidenz Grotesk     [1966 - Günter Gerhard Lange]
8.   Officina     [1990 - Erik Spiekermann]
9.   Gill Sans     [1930 - Eric Gill]
10.  Univers     [1954 - Adrian Frutiger]
11.  Optima     [1954 - Hermann Zapf]
12.  Franklin Gothic     [1903 - Morris Fuller Benton]
13.  Bembo     [1496 - Francesco Griffo]
14.  Interstate     [1993 - Tobias Frere-Jones]
15.  Thesis     [1994 - Lucas de Groot]
16.  Rockwell     [1934 - Frank H. Pierpont]
17.  Walbaum     [1800 - Justus Walbaum]
18.  Meta     [1991 - Erik Spiekermann]
19.  Trinité     [1982 - Bram De Does]
20.  Din     [1926 - Ludwig Goller]
21.  Matrix     [1986 - Zuzana Licko]
22.  OCR     [1965 - American Type Founders]
23.  Avant Garde     [1968 - Herb Lubalin]
24.  Lucida     [1985 - Chris Holmes / Charles Bigelow]
25.  Sabon     [1964 - Jan Tschichold]
26.  Zapfino     [1998 - Hermann Zapf]
27.  Letter Gothic     [1956 - Roger Roberson]
28.  Stone     [1987 - Summer Stone]
29.  Arnhem     [1998 - Fred Smeijers]
30.  Minion     [1990 - Robert Slimbach]
31.  Myriad     [1992 - Twombly & Slimbach]
32.  Rotis     [1988 - Olt Aicher]
33.  Eurostile     [1962 - Aldo Novarese]
34.  Scala     [1991 - Martin Majoor]
35.  Syntax     [1968 - Hans Eduard Meier]
36.  Joanna     [1930 - Eric Gill]
37.  Fleishmann     [1997 - Erhard Kaiser]
38.  Palatino     [1950 - Hermann Zapf]
39.  Baskerville     [1754 - John Baskerville]
40.  Fedra     [2002 - Peter Bil'ak]
41.  Gotham     [2000 - Tobias Frere-Jones]
42.  Lexicon     [1992 - Bram De Does]
43.  Hands     [1991 - Letterror]
44.  Metro     [1929 - W. A. Dwiggins]
45.  Didot     [1799 - Firmin Didot]
46.  Formata     [1984 - Bernd Möllenstädt]
47.  Caslon     [1725 - William Caslon]
48.  Cooper Black     [1920 - Oswald B. Cooper]
49.  Peignot     [1937 - A. M. Cassandre]
50.  Bell Gothic     [1938 - Chauncey H. Griffith]
51.  Antique Olive     [1962 - Roger Excoffon]
52.  Wilhelm Klngspor Gotisch     [1926 - Rudolf Koch]
53.  Info     [1996 - Erik Spiekermann]
54.  Dax     [1995 - Hans Reichel]
55.  Proforma     [1988 - Petr van Blokland]
56.  Today Sans     [1988 - Volker Küster]
57.  Prokyon     [2002 - Erhard Kaiser]
58.  Trade Gothic     [1948 - Jackson Burke]
59.  Swift     [1987 - Gerald Unger]
60.  Copperplate Gothic     [1901 - Frederic W. Goudy]
61.  Blur     [1992 - Neville Brody]
62.  Base     [1995 - Zuzana Licko]
63.  Bell Centennial     [1978 - Matthew Carter]
64.  News Gothic     [1908 - Morris Fuller Benton]
65.  Avenir     [1988 - Adrian Frutiger]
66.  Bernhard Modern     [1937 - Lucian Bernhard]
67.  Amplitude     [2003 - Christian Schwartz]
68.  Trixie     [1991 - Erik van Blokland]
69.  Quadraat     [1992 - Fred Smeijers]
70.  Neutraface     [2002 - Christian Schwartz]
71.  Nobel     [1929 - Sjoerd de Roos]
72.  Industria     [1990 - Neville Brody]
73.  Bickham Script     [1997 - Richard Lipton]
74.  Bank Gothic     [1930 - Morris Fuller Benton]
75.  Corporate ASE     [1989 - Kurt Weidemann]
76.  Fago     [2000 - Ole Schafer]
77.  Trajan     [1989 - Carol Twombly]
78.  Kabel     [1927 - Rudolf Koch]
79.  House Gothic 23     [1995 - Tal Leming]
80.  Kosmik     [1993 - Letterror]
81.  Caecilia     [1990 - Peter Matthias Noordzij]
82.  Mrs Eaves     [1996 - Zuzana Licko]
83.  Corpid     [1997 - Lucas de Groot]
84.  Miller     [1997 - Matthew Carter]
85.  Souvenir     [1914 - Morris Fuller Benton]
86.  Instant Types     [1992 - Just van Rossum]
87.  Clarendon     [1845 - Benjamin Fox]
88.  Triplex     [1989 - Zuzana Licko]
89.  Benguiat     [1989 - Ed Benguiat]
90.  Zapf Renaissance     [1984 - Hermann Zapf]
91.  Filosofia     [1996 - Zuzana Licko]
92.  Chalet     [1996 - House Industries]
93.  Quay Sans     [1990 - David Quay]
94.  Cézanne     [1995 - Michael Want, James Grieshaber]
95.  Reporter     [1938 - Carlos Winkow]
96.  Legacy     [1992 - Ronald Arnholm]
97.  Agenda     [1993 - Greg Thompson]
98.  Bello     [2004 - Underware]
99.  Dalliance     [2000 - Frank Heine]
100. Mistral     [1953 - Roger Excoffon]

