Typeface · Sans-serif
Copperplate Gothic
Copperplate Gothic is a typeface designed by Frederic W. Goudy and first produced by American Type Founders (ATF) beginning in 1901.
About Copperplate Gothic
Copperplate Gothic is a typeface designed by Frederic W. Goudy and first produced by American Type Founders (ATF) beginning in 1901. While termed a "Gothic" (another term for sans-serif), the face has small glyphic serifs that act to emphasize the blunt terminus of vertical and horizontal strokes. The typeface shows an unusual combination of influences; the glyphs are reminiscent of stone carving or lettering on copperplate engravings, the wide horizontal axis is typical of Victorian display types, yet the result is cleaner and leaves a crisp impression in letterpress or offset printing. Goudy designed Copperplate Gothic in capitals only, since the design was intended to be used for headings and key words rather than for body text. It is not at all characteristic of Goudy's work, which is generally in the old-style serif genre.
From the Wikipedia article “Copperplate Gothic”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Using Copperplate Gothic in a book
Sans-serif faces work well for headings, captions, children's books and modern nonfiction. For long-form body text in print, most designers still prefer a serif.
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 Q5168849 (CC0).
- Summary text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).