Typeface · Display
Berthold Block
Berthold Block is a sans-serif typeface released by the H. Berthold foundry in the early twentieth century and intended for display use.
About Berthold Block
Berthold Block is a sans-serif typeface released by the H. Berthold foundry in the early twentieth century and intended for display use. Block has a chunky design suitable for headings, with short descenders allowing tight linespacing and rounded corners. It is sometimes simply called "Block". Font design expert Stephen Coles describes it as "a soft but substantial display face with compact dimensions and an organic appearance…[it] isn’t meant for body copy." The Klingspor Museum credits it to Hermann Hoffmann, who managed type design for Berthold. The original metal type release of Block was intentionally "distressed" in style, matching the effect of worn type; some re-releases have a cleaner design. Ferdinand Ulrich suggests that this was to match the organic feel of advertising lettering of the time, including the work of Lucian Bernhard.
From the Wikipedia article “Berthold Block”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Using Berthold Block in a book
Display typefaces are designed for large sizes — covers, chapter titles, posters. Pair them with a quiet text face for the body.
Commercial typefaces require a licence that covers embedding in PDFs and ebooks; check the foundry's licence before you publish.
Sources & data
- Structured data from Wikidata Q25345844 (CC0).
- Summary text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).