Readers with experience of metal and phototypesetting may recall this system, but for now, the majority of us only have this ‘bundled’ version of GillSans to go by. The new compound name and the missing foundry attribution serves to distance today’s users of this type from any awareness that Monotype used to issue Gill Sans in a range of different series with alternate cuts. Ever since Gill Sans was incorporated into the Adobe/Linotype library in the early 1990s what used to be Monotype Gill Sans became GillSans. ![]() ![]() In 2006, now that Gill Sans is distributed freely with Apple’s OS X and Adobe’s Creative Suite products, it is time to re-examine those flaws. ![]() How flawed? Well, monumentally flawed, in fact. So to pick an argument with something that is akin to a typographic national monument might appear unwise it is so very much ‘ours’. As the preferred typeface of British establishments (the Railways, the Church, the BBC and Penguin Books), Gill Sans is part of the British visual heritage just like the Union Jack and the safety pin. Set it in Gill Sans and print it in British Racing Green’. How do you do British post-war design? A. As a graphic designer’s in-joke once put it ‘Q. Gill Sans is the Helvetica of England ubiquitous, utilitarian and yet also quite specific in its ability to point to our notions of time and place.
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