Gill Sans#Development

File:Gill Sans compared to other sans-serifs.png

The proportions of Gill Sans stem from monumental Roman capitals in the uppercase, and traditional "old-style" serif letters in the lower-case. This gives it a very different style compared to geometric sans-serifs based on simple squares and circles, like Futura, or grotesque or "industrial" designs influenced by nineteenth-century lettering styles, like Akzidenz-Grotesk, Helvetica and Univers.{{cite book|first=Walter|last=Tracy|author-link=Walter Tracy|title=Letters of Credit: A View of Type Design|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y8NssjbqNcsC&pg=PA87|date=January 2003|publisher=D.R. Godine|isbn=978-1-56792-240-0|pages=87–98}}{{cite web|last1=Kupferschmid|first1=Indra|title=Multi-axes type families|url=http://kupferschrift.de/cms/2012/05/multi-axes-families/|website=kupferschrift|date=13 May 2012 |access-date=8 December 2014}}{{cite journal|last1=Gerstner|first1=Karl|author-link1=Karl Gerstner|title=A new basis for the old Akzidenz-Grotesk (English translation)|journal=Der Druckspiegel|date=1963|url=http://forgotten-shapes.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/a-new-basis-for-akzidenz-grotesk-english-translation.pdf|quote=[Futura and Gill Sans from] the nineteen-twenties are highly individual interventions in typeface development. They both bear the stamp of the people who designed them...Gill was attempting, ideally, to establish a link to tradition. He drew a sans-serif typeface, [like Renner with Futura] with the aid of the compass and ruler, but based on the visual regularity of a serif roman.|access-date=15 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171015202441/http://forgotten-shapes.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/a-new-basis-for-akzidenz-grotesk-english-translation.pdf|archive-date=15 October 2017|url-status=dead}}{{cite journal|last1=Gerstner|first1=Karl|author-link1=Karl Gerstner|title=Die alte Akzidenz-Grotesk auf neuer Basis|journal=Der Druckspiegel|date=1963|url=http://forgotten-shapes.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/akzidenz-grotesk-auf-neuer-basis-german-original.pdf|access-date=15 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171015202204/http://forgotten-shapes.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/akzidenz-grotesk-auf-neuer-basis-german-original.pdf|archive-date=15 October 2017|url-status=dead}} For example, the "C" and "a" have a much less "folded up" structure compared to grotesque sans-serifs, with wider apertures.{{cite web|last1=Majoor|first1=Martin|author-link=Martin Majoor|title=My Type Design Philosophy|url=http://www.typotheque.com/articles/my_type_design_philosophy|website=Typotheque|date=29 November 2004 |access-date=12 November 2015}} The "a" and "g" in the roman or regular style are "double-storey" designs, rather than the "single-storey" forms used in handwriting and blackletter often found in grotesque and especially geometric sans-serifs.

File:Trajan (2959610060).jpg in Rome, a model for the capitals of Gill Sans and Johnson. Respected by Arts and Crafts artisans as among the best ever drawn, many signs and lettering projects created with an intentionally artistic design are based on them.{{cite journal|last1=Nash|first1=John|title=In Defence of the Roman Letter|journal=Journal of the Edward Johnston Foundation|url=http://www.ejf.org.uk/Resources/JRNarticle.pdf|access-date=13 October 2016}}{{cite journal |last1=Mosley |first1=James |date=1964 |title=Trajan Revived |journal=Alphabet |volume=1 |pages=17–48}}]]

The uppercase of Gill Sans is partly modelled on Roman capitals, such as those found on Trajan's Column in Rome, with considerable variation in width. These had become a standard for inscriptional lettering in Britain at the time: Gill's teacher Edward Johnston had written that "the Roman capitals have held the supreme place among letters for readableness and beauty. They are the best forms for the grandest and most important inscriptions."{{cite book|last1=Johnston|first1=Edward|author-link=Edward Johnston|title=Writing & Illuminating & Lettering|date=1906|publisher=Macmillan|pages=[https://archive.org/details/writingilluminat00johnrich/page/268 268]–269, 384, 391|url=https://archive.org/details/writingilluminat00johnrich}}

While Gill Sans is not based on purely geometric principles to the extent of the geometric sans-serifs that had preceded it, some aspects of Gill Sans do have a geometric feel.{{efn|Although it is now common to classify Gill Sans and Futura as following separate directions in typeface design, humanist and geometric, this did not seem obvious to contemporary writers who often saw both as a new, more personalised development of the sans-serif letter. Some sources of the period distinguish sans-serifs into the "grotesques" of the nineteenth century and the modern "sans-serifs" of the twentieth, or similar classification structures.}} The J descends below the baseline, the "O" is an almost perfect circle, and the capital "M" is based on the proportions of a square with the middle strokes meeting at the centre; this was not inspired by Roman carving, but is very similar to Johnston.{{efn|Mosley writes that it is "tempting to speculate" that this may have been Gill's idea even in the Johnston type, since it does not resemble Johnston's calligraphy, although there are naturally many past precedents for the design in signpainting and type.{{cite speech

|title=Lecture on Gill's work

|first1 =James

|last1=Mosley

|event= 'Me & Mr Gill' talk

|location=Old Truman Brewery, London

|date=10 November 2015

|url= http://www.eyemagazine.com/blog/post/noted-71

}}}} The "E" and "F" are also relatively narrow.

File:Gill Sans exemplar 2.png

The influence of traditional serif letters is also clear in the "two-storey" lower-case "a" and "g", unlike that of Futura, and the "t" with its curve to bottom right and slanting cut at top left, unlike Futura's, which is simply formed from two straight lines.{{cite book|first=Tova|last=Rabinowitz|title=Exploring Typography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xjRBBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA127|date=1 January 2015|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-1-305-46481-0|pages=127–9}} The lower-case "a" also narrows strikingly towards the top of its loop, which is common in serif designs but rarer in sans-serifs.

Following the traditional serif model, the italic has different letterforms from the roman, where many sans-serifs simply slant the letters in what is called an oblique style. This is clearest in the "a", which becomes a "single storey" design similar to handwriting, and the lower-case "p", which has a calligraphic tail on the left reminiscent of italics, such as those cut by William Caslon in the eighteenth century.{{cite book|last1=Tam|first1=Keith|title=Calligraphic tendencies in the development of sanserif types in the twentieth century|date=2002|publisher=University of Reading (MA thesis)|location=Reading|url=http://keithtam.net/documents/sanserif.pdf|access-date=19 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906080252/http://keithtam.net/documents/sanserif.pdf|archive-date=6 September 2015|url-status=dead}} The italic "e" is more restrained, with a straight line on the underside of the bowl where serif fonts normally add a curve.{{efn|Morison had argued for the theory that an oblique made a better match than an italic to an upright font through offering less of a contrast to it. This contention had been a major part of the protracted and tense development of the Perpetua project, begun before Gill Sans but released second, since Monotype management scrapped the oblique for a more normal italic.{{cite book|author=Allan Haley|title=Typographic Milestones|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dKeVor1olhkC&pg=PA91|date=15 September 1992|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-0-471-28894-7|pages=91–98}} Morison ultimately abandoned the idea and ruefully noted that Times New Roman had an italic that owed "more to Didot than dogma."{{cite book|last=Morison|first=Stanley|title=A Tally of Types|url=https://archive.org/details/tallyoftypes0000mori|url-access=registration|date=7 June 1973|publisher=CUP Archive|isbn=978-0-521-09786-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/tallyoftypes0000mori/page/124 124]–5}}}} Like most serif fonts, several weights and releases of Gill Sans use ligatures to allow its expansive letter "f" to join up with or avoid colliding with following letters.

The basic letter shapes of Gill Sans do not appear consistent across styles (or even in the metal type era all the sizes of the same style), especially in the Extra Bold and Extra Condensed widths, while the Ultra Bold style is effectively a different design altogether and was originally marketed as such.{{cite speech

|title=Lecture on the history of Gill Sans

|first1 =Dan

|last1=Rhatigan

|event= 'Me & Mr Gill' talk

|location=Old Truman Brewery, London

|date=10 November 2015

|url= http://www.eyemagazine.com/blog/post/noted-71

}} Digital-period Monotype designer Dan Rhatigan, author of an article on Gill Sans's development after Gill's death, said that "Gill Sans grew organically ... [it] takes a very 'asystematic' approach to type. Very characteristic of when it was designed and of when it was used."{{cite web|last1=Rhatigan|first1=Dan|title=All about Workflow|url=http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/dan-rhatigan-all-about-workflow|website=Eye Magazine|access-date=15 February 2015}}{{cite journal|last1=Rhatigan|first1=Daniel|title=Gill Sans after Gill|journal=Forum|date=September 2014|issue=28|pages=3–7|url=http://image.linotype.com/files/pdf/GillSansArticle.pdf|access-date=26 December 2015|archive-date=15 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150215150435/http://image.linotype.com/files/pdf/GillSansArticle.pdf|url-status=dead}} At this time, the idea that sans-serif typefaces should form a consistent family, with glyph shapes as consistent as possible between all weights and sizes, had not fully developed; it was normal for families to vary as seemed appropriate for their weight until developments such as the groundbreaking release of Univers in 1957.{{cite journal|last1=Budrick|first1=Callie|last2=Biemann|first2=Emil|title=Subtleties of the Univers|journal=Print|date=1961|url=http://www.printmag.com/design-inspiration/subtleties-of-the-univers/|access-date=22 January 2016}}

In the light weights, the slanting cut at top left of the regular "t" is replaced with two separate strokes.{{efn|This is necessary since the slanting cut would unbalance the letter if the stroke weights were lighter.}} From the bold weight upwards, Gill Sans has an extremely eccentric design of "i" and "j", with the dots smaller than their parent letter's stroke.{{cite news |last1=Coles |first1=Stephen |title=A Cure for the Common Font |work=HOW |date=2009 |quote=[The] Light and Roman styles look pretty good on nearly anything. But it suffers from ubiquity…not to mention the dirty secret that many designers don’t discover until it's too late: the family gets more and more awkward towards the heavy end of the spectrum.}}

{{clear}}

File:West Brompton.jpg on a London Underground metal sign. Johnston's design was rendered variably on some older signs; this uses a condensed "R" and four-terminal "W".]]

File:Figgins sans-serif specimen.jpg.{{cite book|title=Specimen of Plain & Ornamental Types from the Foundry of V. & J. Figgins|date=1845|location=17 West St. Smithfield, London|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_IkNPAAAAcAAJ|access-date=27 October 2017}} Gill and Johnston sought to create sans-serif designs that were modern and not as bold as these. Gill argued in his Essay on Typography that such closed-up forms were counterproductively bold and less legible than lighter fonts of normal proportions.]]

Morison commissioned Gill to develop Gill Sans after they had begun to work together (often by post since Gill lived in Wales) on Gill's serif design Perpetua in 1925; they had known each other since about 1913. In 1927, Morison visited Cleverdon's bookshop in Bristol, where he was impressed by Gill's fascia and alphabet.{{cite book|last1=Dreyfus|first1=John|last2=Cleverdon|first2=Douglas|title=A Book of Alphabets for Douglas Cleverdon|date=1987|publisher=Christopher Skelton|location=Wellingborough, England|isbn=978-0948906015}} Gill wrote that "it was as a consequence of seeing these letters" that Morison commissioned him to develop a sans-serif family.{{cite book|last1=MacCarthy|first1=Fiona|title=Eric Gill|isbn=978-0-571-26582-4|page=300|date=2011-06-16|publisher=Faber & Faber }}{{cite journal|title=Eric Gill|journal=Monotype Recorder|date=1958|volume=41|issue=3|url=http://www.metaltype.co.uk/downloads/mr/mr_41_3.pdf|access-date=16 September 2015}}{{cite web|author=Paul Townsend |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/20654194@N07/2060073382/ |title=Douglas Cleverdon Book Publishers |publisher=Flickr.com |date=20 October 2009 |access-date=7 January 2011}}{{efn|Cleverdon retained the book of alphabets, which also included model serif capitals and lower-case, before selling it to the Harry Ransom Center collection in 1967.}}

In the period during and after his closest collaboration with Johnston, Gill had intermittently worked on sans-serif letter designs, including an almost sans-serif capital design in an alphabet for sign-painters in the 1910s and some capital letter signs around his home in Capel-y-ffin, Wales.{{efn|The sign-painter's alphabet had very small wedge serifs, similar to the capitals of Copperplate Gothic and similar designs. This style was occasionally used at the time. Johnston had considered it as a possible structure for the Underground alphabet and it was used on some variants of Johnston by the Underground with the involvement of Johnston's pupil Percy Delf Smith.}} Gill had greatly admired Johnston's work on their Underground project, which he later wrote had "redeemed the whole business of sans-serif from its nineteenth-century corruption" of extreme boldness.{{cite book|editor1-last=Shewring|editor1-first=Walter|title=The Letters of Eric Gill|date=1948|publisher=Devin-Adair|pages=435–8|quote=As perhaps you know, I was a pupil of Edward Johnston and was living almost next door to him when he was designing the LPTB sans-serif. It was a revolutionary thing and as you know, it redeemed the whole business of sans-serif from its nineteenth-century corruption. It was not until 1927 that I was asked by the Monotype Corporation to do a sans-serif for them.}} Johnston apparently had not tried to turn the alphabet (as it was then called) that he had designed into a commercial typeface project.{{cite book|last1=Loxley|first1=Simon|title=Type: the secret history of letters|date=2005|publisher=I. B. Tauris|location=London|isbn=978-1-84511-028-4|pages=109–121|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9AfP2prmEDUC&pg=PA109|access-date=26 December 2015|chapter=Chapter 9: Going Underground: Edward Johnston's Letters for London}} He had tried to get involved in type design before starting work on Johnston Sans, but without success since the industry at the time mostly created designs in-house.{{cite book|last1=Howes|first1=Justin|author-link=Justin Howes|title=Johnston's Underground Type|date=2000|publisher=Capital Transport|location=Harrow Weald, Middlesex|isbn=978-1-85414-231-3|pages=8, 20–21}} Morison similarly respected the design of the Underground system, one of the first and most lasting uses of a standard lettering style as corporate branding (Gill had designed a set of serif letters for WH Smith), writing that it "conferred upon [the lettering] a sanction, civic and commercial, as had not been accorded to an alphabet since the time of Charlemagne".{{cite book|author=Simon Garfield|title=Just My Type: A Book About Fonts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SM6wrKiO5osC&pg=PA118|date=21 October 2010|publisher=Profile Books|isbn=978-1-84765-292-8|pages=114–124}}

File:Gill Sans Q, punctuation and manicules (22065785558).jpgs]]

Morison and Gill had met with some resistance within Monotype while developing Perpetua, and while Morison was an enthusiastic backer of the project, Monotype's engineering manager and type designer Frank Hinman Pierpont was deeply unconvinced, commenting that he could "see nothing in this design to recommend it and much that is objectionable".{{cite web|last1=Mosley |first1=James |title=Eric Gill and the Cockerel Press |url=http://www.itcfonts.com/Ulc/OtherArticles/GillCockerel.htm |website=Upper & Lower Case |publisher=International Typeface Corporation |access-date=7 October 2016 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120729035625/http://www.itcfonts.com/Ulc/OtherArticles/GillCockerel.htm |archive-date=29 July 2012}}{{cite journal|last1=Mosley|first1=James|author-link=James Mosley|title=Eric Gill's Perpetua Type|journal=Fine Print}}{{cite book|last1=Mosley|first1=James|editor1-last=Ginger|editor1-first=E.M.|title=Fine Print on Type|date=1989|publisher=Lund Humphries|pages=54–58|chapter=Eric Gill's Perpetua Type}} (Pierpont was the creator of Monotype's previous mainstay sans-serif, a loose family now called Monotype Grotesque. It is a much less sculptured design inspired by German sans-serifs.){{cite web|last1=Mosley|first1=James|title=The Nymph and the Grot, an update|url=http://typefoundry.blogspot.co.uk/2007/01/nymph-and-grot-update.html|website=Type Foundry (blog)|access-date=6 March 2016}} Morison also intervened to insist that the letters "J" and "Q" be allowed to elegantly descend below the baseline, something not normal for titling typefaces that were often made to fill up the entire area of the metal type.{{cite book|last1=Barker|first1=Nicolas|title=Stanley Morison|date=1972|publisher=Macmillan|location=London|pages=218–286}} In the early days of its existence, it was not always consistently simply called "Gill Sans", with other names such as "Gill Sans-serif", "Monotype Sans-Serif" (the latter two both used by Gill in some of his publications) or its order numbers (such as Series No. 231) sometimes used.{{cite book|last1=Gill|first1=Eric|title=Eric Gill: an Autobiography|date=1940|publisher=Lund Humphries|page=220}}{{cite book|last1=Gill|first1=Eric|title=An Essay on Typography|page=46|title-link=An Essay on Typography}}

A large amount of material about the development of Gill Sans survives in Monotype's archives and in Gill's papers. While the capitals (which were prepared first) resemble Johnston quite closely, the archives document Gill (and the drawing office team at Monotype's works in Salfords, Surrey, who developed a final precise design and spacing) grappling with the challenge of creating a viable humanist sans-serif lower-case as well as an italic, which Johnston's design did not have.{{efn|Some revivals of Johnston, such as a project by Berthold Wolpe, the ITC digitisation and that used by Transport for London have attempted to synthesise an italic or oblique for Johnston, but Johnston never created one.{{cite web|title=ITC Johnston|url=http://www.linotype.com/5870/itcjohnstonpro.html|website=fonts.com|publisher=Monotype|access-date=11 July 2015|archive-date=7 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131007233714/http://www.linotype.com/5870/itcjohnstonpro.html|url-status=dead}} P22's revival declined to add one.{{cite web|title=P22 Underground pdf specimen|url=https://www.p22.com/family-Underground|publisher=P22|access-date=11 July 2015}}

}} Gill's first draft proposed many slanting cuts on the ends of ascenders and descenders (resembling Johnston less than the released version), the latter of which were quite long.{{cite web|title=Gill Sans working drawing|date=13 January 2005 |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/zara/3305403/|publisher=St. Bride's Library|access-date=11 January 2016}}{{cite web|last1=Walters|first1=John|last2=Weinzierl|first2=Terrance|title=Terrance Weinzierl: Joanna Sans style and legacy|url=http://www.monotype.com/expertise/articles/terrance-weinzierl-joanna-sans-style-and-legacy/|publisher=Monotype|access-date=25 April 2016|archive-date=26 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826053222/http://www.monotype.com/expertise/articles/terrance-weinzierl-joanna-sans-style-and-legacy/|url-status=dead}}{{cite journal|last1=Handover|first1=Phyllis Margaret|author-link=P. M. Handover|title=Grotesque Letters|journal=Monotype Newsletter, Also Printed in Motif as "Letters Without Serifs"|url=http://up.stewf.com/0o400K3p302U|date=1958}}

{{multiple image

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| align = left

| direction = vertical

| width = 200

| header =

| image1 = Pencil To Pixel Gill Sans italic lower case (cropped).jpg

| alt1 = Gill Sans italic lower case draft

| caption1 = An early design for the italic lower case with long descenders, and italic caps with swashes dated nine days later

| image2 = Pencil To Pixel Gill Sans italic capitals (cropped).jpg

| alt2 = Gill Sans italic capitals

| caption2 =

}}

Early art for the italic also looked very different, with less of a slope, very long descenders, and swash capitals.{{efn|This resulted in a design somewhat similar to Goudy Sans of a few years later. The development of Johnston had gone through a similar paring-down process a decade earlier, in which the idea of incorporating many calligraphy-influenced glyphs, like a capital-form "q" in the lower-case, was considered then abandoned.}} The final version did not use the calligraphic italic "g" that Gill preferred in his serif designs Perpetua and Joanna (and considered in the draft italic art), instead using a standard "double-storey" "g".{{cite book|last1=Harling|first1=Robert|title=The Letter Forms and Type Designs of Eric Gill|date=1975|publisher=Published by Eva Svensson, and printed by the Westerham Press|location=Westerham, Kent|isbn=978-0-903696-04-3|pages=36–48|edition=[1st U.S. ed.].}}

File:Gill Sans and Johnston.tiff

In the regular or roman style of Gill Sans, some letters were simplified from Johnston, with diamond dots becoming round (rectangles in the later light weight) and the lower-case "L" becoming a simple line. However, the "a" became more complex, with a curving tail in most versions and sizes.{{cite web|last1=Baines|first1=Phil|title=Ditchling Museum of Art & Craft|url=http://fontsinuse.com/uses/5702/ditchling-museum-of-art-craft|website=Fonts in Use|date=7 January 2014 |access-date=15 April 2016}} In addition, the design was simply refined in general, such as by making the horizontals slightly narrower than verticals so that they would not appear unbalanced, a standard technique in font design which Johnston had not used. The "R" with its widely splayed leg was Gill's preferred design, unlike that of Johnston; historian James Mosley has suggested that this may be inspired by an Italian Renaissance carving in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.{{cite web|last1=Mosley|first1=James|title=Eric Gill's R: the Italian connection|url=http://typefoundry.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/eric-gills-r-italian-connection.html|website=Type Foundry|access-date=11 November 2015}}{{cite web|title=Monument to Marchese Spinetta Malaspina|url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O102495/monument-to-marchese-spinetta-malaspina-monument-firenze-antonio-da/|publisher=Victoria & Albert Museum|access-date=11 November 2015}}

File:PencilToPixel - 25 (8713318369).jpg

Particular areas of thought during the design process were the "a" (several versions and sizes in the hot metal era had a straight tail, like Johnston's, or a mildly curving tail), "b", "d", "p" and "q", where some versions (and sizes, since the same weight would not be identical at every size) had stroke ends visible and others did not.{{efn|An accessible specimen showing this is the Monotype Recorder article on the LNER timetable, which prints the sizes and weights the LNER favoured: stroke ends are visible on the 18 pt medium on "d", "p" and "q", but not at 10 pt.}} Rhatigan has commented that Monotype's archives contain "enough [material] for a book just about the 'b', 'd', 'p', and 'q' of Gill Sans".{{cite tweet|user=ultrasparky|author=Dan Rhatigan|number=162871441828741120|date=27 January 2012|title=I am again stunned by the sheer amount of info in Monotype's archive. There's enough for a book just about the b, d, p, and q of Gill Sans.}}

The titling capitals of Gill Sans were first unveiled at a printing conference in 1928; it was also shown in a specimen issued in the Fleuron magazine, edited by Morison.{{cite journal|title=Fifty Years of Typecutting|journal=Monotype Recorder|date=1950|volume=39|issue=2|pages=11, 21|url=http://www.metaltype.co.uk/downloads/mr/mr_39_2.pdf|access-date=12 July 2015}} While initial response was partly appreciative, it was still considered dubious by some ultra-conservative printers who saw all sans-serif type as modern and unsound; one called it "typographical Bolshevism".{{cite web|last1=Ashworth|first1=Mikey|title=Sample page of Eric Gill's "Gill Sans" from The Fleuron, 1928|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/36844288@N00/23553452720|website=Flickr|date=19 December 2015 |access-date=1 May 2016}} Sans-serifs were still regarded as vulgar and commercial by purists in this period. Johnston's pupil Graily Hewitt privately commented that:

In Johnston I have lost confidence. Despite all he did for us ... he has undone too much by forsaking his standard of the Roman alphabet, giving the world, without safeguard or explanation, his block letters which disfigure our modern life. His prestige has obscured their vulgarity and commercialism.

Gill Sans' technical production followed Monotype's standard method of the period. The characters were drawn mirrored on paper in large plan diagrams by the drawing office team, led and trained by Pierpont and Fritz Steltzer, both of whom Monotype had recruited from the German printing industry. The drawing staff who executed the design was disproportionately female; they worked out many aspects of the final drawings including adaptations of the letters to different sizes and the spacing.{{cite journal |last1=Savoie |first1=Alice |title=The women behind Times New Roman |journal=Journal of Design History |date=1 December 2020 |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=209–224 |doi=10.1093/jdh/epaa025}} The diagrams were then used as a plan for machining metal punches by pantograph to stamp matrices, which would be loaded into a casting machine to cast type.{{cite web|last1=Rhatigan|first1=Dan|title=Time and Times again|url=http://ultrasparky.org/archives/2011/09/time_and_times_.html|publisher=Monotype|access-date=28 July 2015}}{{cite web|last1=Morison|first1=Stanley|author-link=Stanley Morison|title=Changing the Times|url=http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/stanley-morison-changing-the-times|website=Eye|access-date=28 July 2015}} It was Monotype's standard practice at the time to first engrave a limited number of characters and print proofs (some of which survive) from them to test overall balance of colour and spacing on the page, before completing the remaining characters. Rhatigan, Walter Tracy, and Gill's biographer Malcolm Yorke have all written that the drawing office's work in making Gill Sans successful has not been fully appreciated. Yorke described Gill as "tactless" in his claims that the design was "as much as possible mathematically measurable ... as little reliance as possible should be placed on the sensibility of the draughtsmen and others concerned in its machine facture".

Gill Sans rapidly became very popular. Its success was aided by Monotype's sophisticated marketing, led by Gill's supporter Beatrice Warde, and due to its practicality and availability for machine composition in a very wide range of sizes and weights.{{cite journal|last1=Warde|first1=Beatrice|title=Plumed Hats and Modern Typography|journal=Commercial Art|date=1932|url=http://magazines.iaddb.org/issue/CAI/1932-01-01/edition/null/page/16|access-date=10 August 2017|archive-date=15 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215173342/https://magazines.iaddb.org/issue/CAI/1932-01-01/edition/null/page/16|url-status=dead}}

Despite the popularity of Gill Sans, some reviews were critical. Robert Harling, who knew Gill, wrote in his 1976 anthology examining Gill's lettering that the density of the basic weight made it unsuitable for extended passages of text, printing a passage with it as a demonstration. The regular weight has been used to print body text for some trade printing uses, such as guides to countryside walks published by the LNER.{{cite web|title="Rambles in ..." series, London and North Eastern Railway|url=http://fontsinuse.com/uses/14035/rambles-in-series-london-and-north-eastern-ra|website=Fonts in Use|access-date=17 September 2016}} William Addison Dwiggins described it and Futura as "fine in the capitals and bum in the lower-case" while proposing to create Metro, a more individualistic competitor, for Linotype around 1929.{{cite web|last1=Shaw|first1=Paul|title=William Addison Dwiggins: Jack of All Trades, Master of More than One|url=http://www.linotype.com/3245/william-addison-dwiggins.html|publisher=Linotype|access-date=26 December 2015|archive-date=16 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190616121633/https://www.linotype.com/3245/william-addison-dwiggins.html|url-status=dead}} Modern writers, including Stephen Coles and Ben Archer, have criticised it for failing to improve on Johnston and for unevenness of colour, especially in the bolder weights. More generally, modern font designer Jonathan Hoefler has criticised Johnston and Gill's designs for rigidity, calling their work "products more of the machine than the hand, chilly and austere designs shaped by unbending rules, whose occasional moments of whimsy were so out of place as to feel volatile and disquieting".{{cite web|title=Ideal Sans|url=http://www.typography.com/fonts/ideal-sans/overview/|publisher=Hoefler & Frere-Jones|access-date=26 December 2015}}

Gill broached the topic of the similarity with Johnston in a variety of ways in his work and writings, writing to Johnston in 1933 to apologise for the typeface bearing his name and describing Johnston's work as being important and seminal.{{cite web|last1=Derrick|first1=Michael|title=Book of the Week: The Ditchling Community|url=http://archive.thetablet.co.uk/article/12th-september-1959/12/books-of-the-week|website=The Tablet|access-date=24 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919204935/http://archive.thetablet.co.uk/article/12th-september-1959/12/books-of-the-week|archive-date=19 September 2015|url-status=dead}} However, in his Essay on Typography, he proposed that his version was "perhaps an improvement" and more "fool-proof" than Johnston's. Johnston and Gill had drifted apart by the beginning of the 1920s, something Gill's biographer Fiona MacCarthy described as partly due to the anti-Catholicism of Johnston's wife Greta.{{cite book|last1=MacCarthy|first1=Fiona|title=Eric Gill|date=1990|publisher=Faber|location=London|isbn=978-0-571-14302-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/ericgill0000macc/page/141 141]|url=https://archive.org/details/ericgill0000macc/page/141}}{{cite book|last1=Loxley|first1=Simon|title=Type|isbn=978-0-85773-017-6|pages=161–3|date=2006-03-31|publisher=Bloomsbury }} Frank Pick, the Underground Electric Railways Company managing director who commissioned Johnston's typeface, privately believed Gill Sans to be "a rather close copy" of Johnston's work.

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File:Gill Sans display fonts.png

Following the initial success of Gill Sans, Monotype rapidly produced a wide variety of other variants. In addition, Monotype sold moulds (matrices) for Gill Sans in very large sizes for their "Supercaster" type-casting equipment. Popular with advertisers, this allowed end-users to cast their own type at a very competitive price.{{cite journal|last1=Badaracco|first1=Claire|title=Innovative Industrial Design and Modern Public Culture: The Monotype Corporation, 1922–1932|journal=Business & Economic History|date=1991|volume=20 (second series)|pages=226–233|url=http://www.thebhc.org/sites/default/files/beh/BEHprint/v020/p0226-p0233.pdf|access-date=19 December 2015|publisher=Business History Conference}} This made it a popular choice for posters. Gill's biographer Malcolm Yorke described it as "the essence of clarity for public notices".{{cite book|first=Malcolm|last=Yorke|title=Eric Gill: Man of Flesh and Spirit|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OhopB-7hqUwC&pg=PA249|date=7 July 2000|publisher=Tauris Parke Paperbacks|isbn=978-1-86064-584-6|page=249}}

Versions of Gill Sans were created in a wide range of styles, such as condensed and shadowed weights.{{cite web|last1=Rhatigan|first1=Dan|title=Gill Sans Extra Light|url=https://instagram.com/p/g8CanzrHJV/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/iarchive/s/instagram/g8CanzrHJV |archive-date=2021-12-24 |url-access=limited|website=Instagram|publisher=Monotype via Instagram|access-date=3 May 2015}}{{cbignore}} Several shadowed designs were released, including a capitals-only regular shadowed design and a light-shadowed version with deep relief shadows. In the metal type era, a "cameo ruled" design that placed white letters in boxes or against a stippled black background was available.{{cite web|last1=Fuga|first1=Giangiorgio|title=Riscatype 028029: Gill Sans specimen booklet 1938|date=26 November 2007 |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/giofuga/2065974620}}{{cite web|last1=Fuga|first1=Giangiorgio|title=Riscatype 0030: Gill Sans specimen book 1938|date=26 November 2007 |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/giofuga/2065976264}}{{cite web|title=Gill Sans specimen book|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/alan98/8241213759|website=Flickr photo of Gill Sans specimen book|date=3 December 2012 |publisher=Monotype|access-date=3 May 2015}}{{cite web|title=36 pt Gill Cameo Ruled|date=24 July 2009 |url=https://handandeye.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/36-pt-gill-cameo-ruled/|publisher=Hand & Eye Letterpress|access-date=26 February 2017}} The shadowed weights were intended to be used together with the regular, printing in different colours, to achieve a simple multicolour effect.{{cite web|title=Gill Sans Shadow colours|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/frankrolf/23159022060|website=Flickr|date=8 November 2015 |publisher=Monotype|access-date=18 December 2015}} Some of the decorative versions may predominantly have been designed by the Monotype office, with Gill examining, critiquing and approving the designs sent to him by post.{{cite speech

|title=Lecture on Gill's typefaces

|first1 =Sallie

|last1=Morris

|event= 'Me & Mr Gill' talk

|location=Old Truman Brewery, London

|date=6 November 2015

|url= http://www.reading.ac.uk/typography/pg-research/typ-pgrwhatisit/typ-pgrresearchstudentstopics.aspx

}} The long series of extensions, redrawings and conversions into new formats of one of Monotype's most important assets (extending long beyond Gill's death) has left Gill Sans with a great range of alternative designs and releases. In 1993, a book weight suitable for body text was created in between the light and regular weight, along with a heavy weight.{{cite web|title=The Monotype Chronicles: 1992–1996|url=https://www.monotype.co.uk/DynamicPage/View.cfm?PageName=tl_1992_96|publisher=Monotype|access-date=6 March 2016}}

File:Gill Sans Extra Bold Kayo (21630545464).jpg

In 1936, Gill and Monotype released Gill Kayo, an extremely bold sans-serif that took its name from "KO", or knockout, implying its aggressive build. It has often been branded as Gill Sans Ultra Bold, even though many of its letters vary considerably from the original Gill Sans. Gill, who thought of the design as something of a joke, proposed naming it "Double Elefans".{{cite web|title=Signature Typeface|url=http://www.eyemagazine.com/blog/post/signature-typeface|website=Eye|access-date=22 July 2015}}{{cite book|first=Malcolm|last=Yorke|title=Eric Gill: Man of Flesh and Spirit|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OhopB-7hqUwC&pg=PA260|date=7 July 2000|publisher=Tauris Parke Paperbacks|isbn=978-1-86064-584-6|page=260}} Harling reviewed it as "dismal" and sarcastically commented that "typographical historians of 2000AD (which isn't, after all, so very far away) will find this odd outburst in Mr Gill's career, and will spend much time in attempting to track down this sad psychological state of his during 1936."{{cite web|title=Kayo – also known as Gill Sans Ultra Bold|url=https://stoneletters.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/kayo-also-known-as-gill-sans-ultra-bold/|website=Stone Letters|access-date=5 November 2015|archive-date=22 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200322084941/https://stoneletters.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/kayo-also-known-as-gill-sans-ultra-bold/|url-status=dead}}{{cite book|first1=Robert|last1=Harling|title=The Penrose Annual: Review of Graphic Arts, Volume 39 (1937)|date=1937|publisher=Lund Humphries|quote=Kayo [is] so fantastic as to take us immediately back to the dark ages of so much of nineteenth-century display typography. Kayo is a dismal type. In the hands of a skilful typographer it could probably be made to do a good-hearted, gargantuan job very well. In the hands of jobbing printers scattered throughout England it will be just plain murder. The type was originally named Double Elefans, which had a very pleasant touch of the lampoon about it. The new name, Kayo, is too horribly truthful.}}{{cite web|title=Robert Harling: A Note|url=https://stoneletters.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/robert-harling-a-note/|website=Stone Letters|access-date=4 August 2017|archive-date=22 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200322084942/https://stoneletters.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/robert-harling-a-note/|url-status=dead}} Forty years later, he described it as "the most horrendous and blackguardly of these display exploitations". Work on the font began in 1932; some of the first drawings may have been prepared by Gill's son-in-law Denis Tegetmeier. Gill Kayo made a return to popularity in graphic design during the 1970s and 1980s, when Letraset added a condensed weight.{{cite web|title=Fonts in Use: Gill Kayo|url=http://fontsinuse.com/search?terms=Gill+Kayo|website=Fonts in Use|access-date=11 November 2015}}{{cite web|last1=Devroye|first1=Luc|author-link=Luc Devroye|title=Kayo Poster|url=http://luc.devroye.org/EricGill--Kayo-1936.jpg|website=Luc Devroye|publisher=Monotype (original design)|access-date=2 January 2015}}{{cite web|last1=Pitt|first1=John|title=Kayo – also known as Gill Sans Ultra Bold|url=http://stoneletters.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/kayo-also-known-as-gill-sans-ultra-bold/|website=Stone Letters|access-date=2 January 2015|archive-date=22 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200322084941/https://stoneletters.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/kayo-also-known-as-gill-sans-ultra-bold/|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|last1=Coles|first1=Stephen|title=Gill Kayo|url=http://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/7273/gill-kayo|website=Fonts in Use|access-date=2 January 2015}}

The boldest weights of Gill Sans, including Kayo, have been particularly criticised for design issues such as the eccentric design of the dots on the "i" and "j", and for their extreme boldness (Gill Sans' standard weight is, as already noted, already quite bold by modern standards).{{cite web|last=Archer|first=Ben |url=http://www.typotheque.com/articles/re-evaluation_of_gill_sans |title=Eric Gill got it wrong; a re-evaluation of Gill Sans |website=Typotheque|access-date=7 January 2011}}{{cite book|last1=Yorke|first1=Malcolm|title=Eric Gill, man of flesh and spirit|date=2000|publisher=Tauris Parke Paperbacks|location=London|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OhopB-7hqUwC&pg=PA258|isbn=978-1-86064-584-6|pages=258–261}} Gill argued in his Essay on Typography that the nineteenth-century tendency to make sans-serif typefaces attention-grabbingly bold was self-defeating, since the result was compromised legibility.{{cite book|last1=Gill|first1=Eric|title=An essay on typography|date=2007|publisher=David R. Godine|location=Boston|isbn=978-0-87923-950-3|pages=40–47|chapter=2: Lettering|quote=Mere weight and heaviness of letter ceases to be effective in assisting the comprehension of the reader when every poster plays the same shouting game ... a return to mere legibility seems desirable even if the effect be less striking.}} In the closing paragraph, he ruefully noted his contribution to the genre:

There are now about as many different varieties of letters as there are different kinds of fools. I myself am responsible for designing five different sorts of sans-serif letters – each one thicker and fatter than the last because each advertisement has to try and shout down its neighbours.

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File:Gill Sans Nova alternates.png

Monotype developed a set of alternative characters for Gill Sans to cater to differing tastes and national printing styles of different countries. These include Futura-inspired designs of "N", "M", "R", "a", "g", "t" and others, a four-terminal "W" in the French renaissance style, a tighter "R", a "Q" in the nineteenth-century style with a tail that looped upwards (similar to that on Century among others, and used by the LNER), oblique designs as opposed to the standard true italic, a more curving, true-italic "e", and several alternative numerals.{{cite book|title=Specimen Book of Monotype Printing Types|date=6 January 2011 |publisher=Monotype|location=UK|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/bogtrykkeren/5331070318|access-date=5 November 2015}}{{cite web|last1=Coles|first1=Stephen|title=Royal System by Paul Cadovius logo and advertising|url=http://fontsinuse.com/uses/6735/royal-system-by-paul-cadovius-logo-and-advert|website=Fonts in Use|date=3 May 2014 |access-date=3 April 2016}}{{cite web|last1=Coles|first1=Stephen|title=Gill Sans Alts 362, 262, 275|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/stewf/25348920933|website=Flickr|date=21 March 2016 |access-date=3 April 2016}} In the standard designs for Gill Sans, the numeral "1", upper-case "i" and lower-case "L" are all a simple vertical line, so an alternative "1" with a serif was sold for number-heavy situations where this could otherwise cause confusion, such as on price-lists (not all timetables used it: for example, the LNER used the simple version). Some early versions of Gill Sans also had features later abandoned, such as an unusual "7" matching the curve of the "9", a "5" pushing forwards, and a lower-case letter-height "0".

Gill was involved in the design of these alternatives, and Monotype's archive has preserved notes in which he rethought the geometric alternatives. With the increasing popularity of Futura, Gill Sans was not alone in being adapted; both Erbar and Dwiggins' Metro would undergo what historian Paul Shaw has called a "Futura-ectomy" to conform to taste.{{cite web|last1=Shaw|first1=Paul|title=From the Archives: Typographic Sanity|url=http://www.paulshawletterdesign.com/2010/01/from-the-archives-no-9-typographic-sanity/|publisher=Paul Shaw Letter Design|access-date=26 December 2015}} After Gill's death, Monotype created versions for the Greek and Cyrillic alphabets.{{efn |Gerry Leonidas of the University of Reading, a leading expert on the history of Greek printing, has criticised Gill Sans' Greek characters, at least in versions up to 2002, as "seriously compromised" and unidiomatic, although he noted that it was nonetheless widely imitated around the 1950s.{{cite web |last1=Leonidas |first1=Gerry |title=A primer on Greek type design |date=2013-12-01 |url=https://leonidas.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/LCT_greektypedesign.pdf|publisher=Gerry Leonidas |access-date=17 January 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121052529/https://leonidas.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/LCT_greektypedesign.pdf |archive-date=21 January 2022 |url-status=live}}}} Monotype also added additional features not found in the metal type, notably text figures and small capitals.

{{multiple image

| width = 100

| image1 = Title page (Warships To-day, 1936) (cropped).jpg

| alt1 = A title page

| image2 = 1939 Virina Koro (cropped).jpg

| alt2 = A title page

| footer = Two of the most obscure members of the Gill Sans family shown on 1930s books: left: Gill Sans Shadow Line, not available in an official digitisation until 2015, and right: Gill Sans Cameo Ruled, yet to be officially digitised.

}}

File:Gill Sans Bold mirrored.jpg

According to Rhatigan and other sources, Gill Sans had been released in the following styles by the end of the metal type period (not all sold at the same time):

• Gill Sans Titling (1928, series 231)
• Gill Sans (1930, series 262, sometimes called Gill Sans Medium)
• Gill Sans Bold (1930, series 275)
• Gill Sans Shadow Line (1931, series 290){{efn|Digitised in Gill Sans Nova as Gill Sans Nova Deco Regular.}}
• Gill Sans Shadow Titling (1931, series 304){{efn|Digitised as Gill Sans Shadowed and Gill Sans Nova Shadowed Outline. Capitals-only, as a titling face.{{cite web|title=Gill Sans Shadowed|url=https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/39911/gill-sans-shadowed|website=Fonts in Use|access-date=26 December 2017}} Similar to Hans Bohn's Orplid face of a few years earlier.{{cite web|title=Orplid|url=https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/39498/orplid|website=Fonts in Use|access-date=26 December 2017}}}}
• Gill Sans Bold Titling (1931, series 317)
• Gill Sans Extra Bold (1931, series 321)
• Gill Sans Light (1931, series 362){{efn|Sometimes sold as Gill Sans Extra Light.{{cite web|last1=Grießhammer|first1=Frank|title=Gill Sans Extra Light Series 362|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/frankrolf/22826471414/|website=Flickr|date=8 November 2015 |access-date=26 December 2017}}}}
• Gill Sans Shadow (1932, series 338){{efn|Could be combined with Gill Sans Regular printed in a different colour to achieve a shadowed effect.{{cite web|last1=Grießhammer|first1=Frank|title=Gill Sans Colour Series 338|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/frankrolf/23159022060/|website=Flickr|date=8 November 2015 |access-date=26 December 2017}} By the late metal type period sold as Gill Sans Shadow No. 3, as the heaviest shadowed weight, despite being cut first.}}
• Gill Sans Bold Condensed (1932, series 343)
• Gill Sans 5pt (1932, series 349, sometimes called Gill Sans No. 2){{cite web|last1=Hunt|first1=Paul D.|title=The Versatile Gill Family of Type Faces|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/pauldhunt/1601081788/|website=Flickr|date=17 October 2007 |access-date=26 December 2017}}
• Gill Sans Bold 5pt (1932, series 350, sometimes called Bold No. 2)
• Gill Sans Poster (1932, series 353)
• Gill Sans Bold Condensed Titling (1933, series 373)
• Gill Sans Cameo (1934, series 233)
• Gill Sans Cameo Ruled (1935, series 299)
• Gill Sans Shadow No. 1 (1936, series 406){{efn|The lightest Gill Sans Shadow weight, digitised as Gill Sans Light Shadowed and Gill Sans Nova Shadowed Light.{{cite web|title=Gill Sans Light Shadowed|url=https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/4962/gill-sans-light-shadowed|website=Fonts in Use|access-date=26 December 2017}}}}
• Gill Sans Shadow No. 2 (1936, series 408){{efn|A slightly bolder shadowed weight.}}
• Gill Sans Ultra Bold (1936, series 442)
• Gill Sans Bold Extra Condensed (1937, series 468)
• Gill Sans Condensed (1937, series 485, sometimes called Medium Condensed)
• Gill Sans Bold No. 3 (1937, series 575)
• Gill Sans Bold Condensed Titling (1939, series 525)
• Gill Sans Extra Bold Titling (1939, series 526)
• Gill Sans Light 5pt (1958, series 662, sometimes called Light No. 2)

Titling series were capitals-only.

Monotype offered Gill Sans on film in the phototypesetting period. The fonts released in 1961 included Light 362, Series 262, Bold 275, Extra Bold 321, Condensed 343, all of which were released in film matrix sets "A" (6–7 points) and "B" (8–22, 24 points).{{cite journal|title=The design of faces for 'Monophoto' film matrices|journal=Monotype Recorder|date=1961|volume=42|issue=2|pages=15–23|url=http://www.metaltype.co.uk/downloads/mr/mr_42_2.pdf|access-date=3 January 2016}}

Monotype created an infant version of Gill Sans using single-storey "a" and "g", and other more distinguishable characters, such as a rounded "y", seriffed "1" and lower-case "L" with a turn at the bottom.{{cite web|title=Gill Sans Infant|url=http://www.fonts.com/font/monotype/gill-sans/infant|website=Fonts.com|publisher=Monotype|access-date=1 May 2016|archive-date=28 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028042915/https://www.fonts.com/font/monotype/gill-sans/infant|url-status=dead}} Infant designs of fonts are often used in education and toys, as the letters, being based on handwriting, are thought to be more recognisable to children, and are often produced to supplement popular families such as Gill Sans, Akzidenz-Grotesk and Bembo.{{cite journal|last1=Walker|first1=Sue|last2=Reynolds|first2=Linda|title=Serifs, sans serifs and infant characters in children's reading books|journal=Information Design Journal|date=1 January 2003|volume=11|issue=3|pages=106–122|doi=10.1075/idj.11.2.04wal}}{{cite web|title=Akzidenz Grotesk Schoolbook|url=http://akzidenz-grotesk.com/font/ag-schoolbook/bq/|publisher=Berthold|access-date=1 May 2016|archive-date=6 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180806180257/https://akzidenz-grotesk.com/font/ag-schoolbook/bq/|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|title=Bembo Infant|url=https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/mti/bembo/|website=MyFonts|access-date=1 May 2016}} Monotype also created a version with rounded stroke ends for John Lewis for use on toys.{{cite web|last1=Coles|first1=Stephen|last2=Rhatigan|first2=Daniel|title=John Lewis Toys|url=http://fontsinuse.com/uses/5274/john-lewis-toys|website=Fonts in Use|date=25 November 2013 |access-date=1 May 2016}}

{{clear}}

File:Gill Sans comparison.png paperback from 1949 compared to digital Gill Sans semi-bold, showing subtle differences in weight and spacing]]

The digital releases of Gill Sans fall into several main phases: releases before 2005 (which includes most bundled "system" versions of Gill Sans), the 2005 Pro edition, and the 2015 Nova release which adds many alternative characters and is in part included with Windows 10. In general characteristics for common weights, the designs are similar, but there are some changes: for example, in the book weight, the 2005 release used circular ij dots, but the 2015 release uses square designs and simplifies some ligatures.{{cite web |url=http://www.fonts.com/FindFonts/RecentReleases/2005/GillSansPro.htm |title=Gill Sans Pro |publisher=Fonts.com |access-date=7 January 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110303230134/http://www.fonts.com/FindFonts/RecentReleases/2005/GillSansPro.htm |archive-date=3 March 2011}}{{cite web|last1=Shaw|first1=Paul|title=Nova: a new Gill Sans for the DIY era|url=http://designobserver.com/feature/nova/39193/|website=Design Observer|access-date=11 February 2016}} Digital Gill Sans also gained character sets not present in the metal type, including text figures and small capitals.

Like all metal type revivals, the digital revival of Gill Sans has raised several decisions of interpretation, such as the issue of how to compensate for the ink spread that would have been seen in print at small sizes more than larger. As a result, printed Gill Sans and its digital facsimile may not always match. The digital release of Gill Sans, like many Monotype digitisations, has been criticised, in particular for excessively tight letter-spacing and lack of optical sizes: with only one design released that has to be used at any text size, it cannot replicate the subtlety of design and spacing of the metal type, for which every size was drawn differently. Different font sizes varied in the hot metal era, as is normal for metal type, with wider spacing and other detail changes at smaller text sizes; other major sans-serif families, such as Futura and Akzidenz-Grotesk, are similar.{{cite web|last1=Frere-Jones|first1=Tobias|author-link=Tobias Frere-Jones|title=MicroPlus|url=https://frerejones.com/blog/introducing-microplus|publisher=Frere-Jones Type|quote=[On adapting metal type designs to smaller sizes]: It was a kind of visual triage, where the essential features are defended and the less critical details are discarded. Each foundry had its own policy about how much to change and when, but the trends were always the same: lower contrast, looser spacing, simpler features.|access-date=1 December 2015}} In the phototype period, Monotype continued to offer two or three sizes of master, but this subtlety was lost in the transfer to digital. To replicate this, it is necessary to make manual adjustment to spacing to compensate for size changes, such as expanding the spacing and increasing the weight used at smaller sizes.{{cite web|last1=Sowersby|first1=Kris|title=Playing Favourites, Part Two.|date=16 January 2013 |url=https://klim.co.nz/blog/playing-favourites-part-two/|publisher=Klim Type Foundry|access-date=16 February 2016|quote=I cannot stand any of the digital versions, they have something fundamentally wrong with them that I just can't put my finger on.}}{{efn|Monotype's early digital releases of their classic typefaces, some unlike Gill Sans never fully revisited, were widely seen as erratic: Jonathan Hoefler commented sarcastically that "Gill Sans retired the trophy for 'Worst Digital Adaptation of an Okay Foundry Type', with Bembo & Centaur close behind".{{cite tweet|user=HoeflerCo|author=Hoefler&Co.|number=26852804026966016|date=17 January 2011|title=@pauldhunt Gill Sans retired the trophy for "Worst Digital Adaptation of an Okay Foundry Type," with Bembo & Centaur close behind.}}}}

Former ATypI president John Berry said of Gill Sans' modernised spacing that "both the regular weight and especially the light weight look much better when they're tracked loose".{{cite web|last1=Berry|first1=John D.|title=Cooling Magma|url=http://creativepro.com/dot-font-cooling-magma/|website=Creative Pro|date=24 January 2005 |access-date=22 July 2015}} In contrast, Walter Tracy wrote in 1986 that he preferred the later spacing: "the metal version ... was spaced, I suspect, as if it were a serif face".{{cite book|first=Walter|last=Tracy|title=Letters of Credit: A View of Type Design|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y8NssjbqNcsC&pg=PA71|date=January 2003|publisher=D. R. Godine|isbn=978-1-56792-240-0|page=71}}

As of 2019, Monotype's current digitisation of Gill Sans is Gill Sans Nova, by George Ryan.{{cite book|author-link=Paul Shaw (design historian)|first=Paul|last=Shaw|title=Revival Type: Digital Typefaces Inspired by the Past|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n7e0DgAAQBAJ&pg=PA227|year=2017|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-21929-6|pages=226–9}} It adds many additional variants, including some of the previously undigitised inline versions, stylistic alternates and an ultra-light weight which had been drawn for Grazia.{{cite web|title=Gill Sans Nova|url=http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/mti/gill-sans-nova/|publisher=Monotype|access-date=4 November 2015}}{{cite web|last1=Walters|first1=John|title=George Ryan: The Gill Sans two-step|url=http://www.monotype.com/expertise/articles/george-ryan-the-gill-sans-two-step/|website=Monotype|access-date=25 April 2016|archive-date=29 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160829130155/http://www.monotype.com/expertise/articles/george-ryan-the-gill-sans-two-step|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|last1=Hallmundur|first1=Aegir|title=Eric Gill Series|url=http://typographica.org/typeface-reviews/eric-gill-series/|website=Typographica|access-date=10 June 2016}} The fonts differ from Gill Sans MT ("MT" stands for Monotype) in their adoption of the hooked "1" as default, while the regular weight is renamed "Medium". Monotype celebrated the release with a London exhibition on Gill's work, as they had previously done for the general release of Gill's serif design Joanna in 1958.{{cite web|last1=Steven|first1=Rachael|title=Monotype releases new Eric Gill collection|url=http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2015/november/monotype-releases-new-eric-gill-collection/|publisher=Creative Review|access-date=5 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151123031010/http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2015/november/monotype-releases-new-eric-gill-collection/|archive-date=23 November 2015|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|last1=Brownlee|first1=John|title=How Monotype Remastered Eric Gill for the 21st Century|url=http://www.fastcodesign.com/3053029/how-monotype-remastered-eric-gill-for-the-21st-century|website=Fast Co Design|date=4 November 2015 |access-date=5 November 2015}}{{cite web|last1=Bennett|first1=Neil|title=Why we're not joining in the celebration of typographer Eric Gill|url=http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/news/illustration/eric-gill/|website=Digital Arts|access-date=5 November 2015}}{{cite web|title=Monotype remasters classic Gill typeface for digital age|url=http://www.moreaboutadvertising.com/2015/11/monotype-remasters-classic-gill-typeface-for-digital-age/|website=More About Advertising|date=5 November 2015 |access-date=5 November 2015}} One addition was italic swash caps, which had been considered by Gill but never released.{{cite web |last1=Bergmann |first1=Christoph |title=Nenn mich Musik – The Düsseldorf Düsterboys |url=https://fontsinuse.com/uses/30050/nenn-mich-musik-the-dusseldorf-dusterboys |website=Fonts in Use |date=21 December 2019 |access-date=24 December 2019}}

The family includes 43 fonts, including 33 text fonts in nine weights and three widths; six inline fonts in five weights and two widths (one condensed); two shadowed fonts in two weights and one width; one shadowed outline font, and one deco font. The basic set of Regular, Light and Bold weights is bundled with Windows 10 in the user-downloadable "Pan-European Supplemental Fonts" package.{{cite web|last1=Ding|first1=Frederick|title=New fonts in Windows 10|url=http://www.frederickding.com/posts/2015/07/new-fonts-in-windows-10-082445/|website=Frederick's Timelog|date=8 July 2015 |access-date=26 December 2017}}

Peter Wiegel digitized a modified variant of Gill Sans Bold Condensed, known as TGL 12096-1, which was used on road signs in former East Germany until 1990.

{{cite web

| last1= Wiegel

| first1= Peter

| title= TGL 12096-1

| publisher= Peter Wiegel

| url= https://www.peter-wiegel.de/TGL_12096.html

| access-date= 20 January 2024

}}

{{clear}}

File:LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard Nameplate.jpg locomotive Mallard]]

First unveiled in a single uppercase weight in 1928, Gill Sans achieved national prominence when it was chosen the following year to become the standard typeface of the LNER railway company, soon appearing on every facet of the company's identity, from metal locomotive nameplates and hand-painted station signage to printed restaurant car menus, timetables and advertising posters.{{cite journal|last1=Robinson|first1=Edwin|title=Preparing a railway timetable|journal=Monotype Recorder|date=1939|volume=38|issue=1|pages=14–17, 24–26|url=http://www.metaltype.co.uk/downloads/mr/mr_38_1.pdf|access-date=16 September 2015}}{{cite web|last1=Skelton|first1=Stephen|title=Gill Sans|url=http://www.newwriting.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Skelton-Stephen-Gill-Sans.pdf|website=New Writing|publisher=University of East Anglia|access-date=3 May 2015}}{{cite book|first1=Beverley|last1=Cole|first2=Richard|last2=Durack|title=Railway Posters 1923–1947: From the Collection of the National Railway Museum, York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HkM6rOU7ETAC&pg=PA15|year=1992|publisher=Laurence King Publishing|isbn=978-1-85669-014-0|pages=15–23}}

The LNER promoted their rebranding by offering Gill (who was fascinated with railway engines) a footplate ride on the Flying Scotsman express service; Gill also painted a signboard for it in the style of Gill Sans, which survives in the collection of the St Bride Library.{{cite journal|last1=Robinson|first1=Edwin|title=Preparing a Railway Timetable|journal=Monotype Recorder|date=1939|volume=38|issue=1|page=24|url=http://www.metaltype.co.uk/downloads/mr/mr_38_1.pdf|access-date=12 July 2015}}{{cite journal|title=East Coast Joys: Tom Purvis and the LNER|journal=Journal of Design History|volume=8|issue=4|pages=291–311|year=1995|jstor = 1316023|last1 = Hewitt|first1 = John|doi=10.1093/jdh/8.4.291}}

File:1952 Jersey holiday events brochure.jpg

In 1949, the Railway Executive decided on standard types of signs to be used at all stations. Lettering was to use the Gill Sans typeface on a background of the regional colour.{{cite news |author= |title=Railway Station Signs. Standard Lettering |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001672/19490520/097/0010 |newspaper=Warminster & Westbury journal, and Wilts County Advertiser |location=England |date=20 May 1949 |access-date=13 February 2017 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription }} Gill Sans was also used in much of its printed output, very often in capitals-only settings for signage. Specially drawn variations were developed by the Railway Executive (part of the British Transport Commission) for signs in its manual for the use of signpainters painting large signs by hand. Other users included Penguin Books' iconic paperback jacket designs from 1935, and British official mapping agency Ordnance Survey.{{cite web|last1=Powell|first1=Katie|title=Ordnance Survey: not just paper maps|url=https://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2015/february/ordnance-survey-not-just-paper-maps/|website=Creative Review|access-date=21 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222142643/https://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2015/february/ordnance-survey-not-just-paper-maps/|archive-date=22 December 2015|url-status=dead}} It was also used by London Transport for documents that could not be practically set in Johnston.{{cite web|title=Eiichi Kono on New Johnston|url=http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2013/february/eiichi-kono-on-new-johnston/|website=Creative Review|access-date=25 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160616080040/http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2013/february/eiichi-kono-on-new-johnston/|archive-date=16 June 2016|url-status=dead}} Printing historian Paul Shaw has described it as a key element of the "Modernist classical" style from the 1930s to the 1950s, which promoted clean, spare design, often with all-capitals and centred setting of headings.{{cite web|last1=Shaw|first1=Paul|title=The Univers of Helvetica: A Tale of Two Typefaces|url=http://www.printmag.com/typography/univers-of-helvetica-history/|website=Print|access-date=26 June 2016}}

Gill Sans remains popular, although a trend away from it took place around the 1950s and 1960s towards grotesque and neo-grotesque typefaces, under the influence of continental and American design.{{cite book|first=Victor|last=Margolin|title=Design Discourse: History, Theory, Criticism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OB5pPtGQuZgC&pg=PA136|date=15 September 1989|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-50514-5|page=136}}{{cite book|first=Walter|last=Tracy|title=Letters of Credit: A View of Type Design|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y8NssjbqNcsC&pg=PA39|date=January 2003|publisher=D.R. Godine|isbn=978-1-56792-240-0|page=39}} Typefaces that became popular around this time included original early "grotesque" sans-serifs, as well as new and more elegant designs in the same style, such as Helvetica and Univers. Mosley has commented that "orders unexpectedly revived" for the old Monotype Grotesque design in 1960: "[it] represents, even more evocatively than Univers, the fresh revolutionary breeze that began to blow through typography in the early sixties." In 2007, he added that "its rather clumsy design seems to have been one of the chief attractions to iconoclastic designers tired of the ... prettiness of Gill Sans".{{cite book|last1=Mosley|first1=James|title=The Nymph and the Grot|date=1999|location=London|page=9}} As an example of this trend, Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert's 1965 corporate rebranding of BR as British Rail introduced Helvetica and Univers for printed matter, and the custom but very similar Rail Alphabet for signage, and abandoned the classical, all caps signage style with which Gill Sans is often associated. Kinneir and Calvert's road signage redesign used a similar approach.{{cite book|first=Elizabeth|last=Christopher|title=Communication Across Cultures|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BOEcBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA65|date=3 September 2012|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1-137-01097-1|page=65}}{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite web|last1=Job|first1=Nick|title=Double Arrow blog|url=http://www.doublearrow.co.uk/home.htm|website=Double Arrow|access-date=21 December 2015}}{{cite web|last1=Calvert|first1=Margaret|author-link1=Margaret Calvert|title=New Transport|url=http://www.newtransport.co.uk/|website=A2-TYPE|access-date=2 May 2016}} Linotype and its designer Hermann Zapf, who had begun development on a planned competitor to Gill Sans in 1955, first considered redrawing some letters to make it more like these faces before abandoning the design project (now named "Magnus") around 1962–63.{{cite book|title=Hermann Zapf: ein Arbeitsbericht|date=1984|publisher=Maximilian-Gesellschaft|location=Hamburg|isbn=978-3-921743-28-7|page=74}}

An additional development which reduced Gill Sans' dominance was the arrival of phototypesetting, which allowed typefaces to be printed from photographs on film and (especially in display use; hot metal continued for some body text setting for longer) massively increased the range of typefaces that could cheaply be used. Dry transfers like Letraset had a similar effect for smaller projects; their sans-serif Compacta and Stephenson Blake's Impact exemplified the design trends of the period by choosing dense, industrial designs.{{cite web|title=ITC Compacta|url=http://www.fonts.com/font/itc/compacta|website=fonts.com|access-date=23 August 2015}}{{cite web|last1=Dempsey|first1=Mike|title=Schmalfette: Tall, dark and handsome|url=http://mikedempsey.typepad.com/graphic_journey_blog/2013/04/schmalfette-tall-dark-and-handsome.html|website=Graphic Journey|access-date=22 August 2015}}{{cite web|last1=Dempsey|first1=Mike|title=Frederick Lambert: Graphic Design Britain|url=http://mikedempsey.typepad.com/graphic_journey_blog/2010/12/fredrick-lambert.html|website=Design Journey|access-date=22 August 2015}}{{cite web|last1=Lee |first1=Geoffrey |title=Comments on Typophile thread |url=http://typophile.com/node/7921 |website=Typophile (archived) |access-date=27 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050826182110/http://typophile.com/node/7921 |archive-date=26 August 2005 }} Of the period from the 1930s to 1950s, when he was growing up, James Mosley would later write:

The Monotype classics dominated the typographical landscape ... in Britain, at any rate, they were so ubiquitous that, while their excellent quality was undeniable, it was possible to be bored by them and to begin to rebel against the bland good taste that they represented. In fact we were already aware by 1960 that they might not be around to bore us for too long. The death of metal type ... seemed at last to be happening.{{cite book|last1=Mosley|first1=James|chapter=Reviving the Classics: Matthew Carter and the Interpretation of Historical Models|editor1-last=Mosley|editor1-first=James|editor2-last=Re|editor2-first=Margaret|editor3-last=Drucker|editor3-first=Johanna|editor4-last=Carter|editor4-first=Matthew|title=Typographically Speaking: The Art of Matthew Carter|date=2003|publisher=Princeton Architectural Press|isbn=978-1-56898-427-8|pages=31–34|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WqXd_w4S4SsC&pg=PA32|access-date=30 January 2016}}{{efn|A major part of Mosley's career in the period, indeed, was accumulating for St Bride Library metal type equipment from companies disposing of it.{{cite web|last1=Barnes|first1=Paul|title=James Mosley: a life in objects|url=http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/james-mosley-a-life-in-objects|website=Eye magazine|access-date=11 December 2015}}}}

While it was extremely popular in Britain, and to a lesser extent in European printing, Gill Sans did not achieve popularity with American printers in the hot metal era, with most preferring gothic designs like Franklin Gothic, as well as geometric designs like Futura and Monotype's own Twentieth Century.{{efn|Monotype's competitor Linotype was dominant in the American market at the time, which may have been a factor in this. The shadow-effect capitals-only fonts appear in some US specimen brochures that otherwise excluded it in this period,{{cite book|title=Barco Type Founders specimen brochure|publisher=Barco Type Founders|location=Northlake, IL|pages=24, 31|url=https://archive.org/details/BarcoGreenSpecimen|access-date=19 August 2015}}{{cite book|title=Acme Type Specimen and Revised Price List (Catalog No. 6)|date=1947|publisher=Acme Type Foundry|location=Chicago|page=[https://archive.org/details/AcmeTypeFoundrySpecimen06_1947/page/n67 41]|edition=6|url=https://archive.org/details/AcmeTypeFoundrySpecimen06_1947|access-date=19 August 2015}} in particular the Cameo Ruled weight, which was sold by Baltimore Type Founders in its Airport family, otherwise a clone of Futura.{{cite web|last1=Devroye|first1=Luc|title=Baltimore Type Foundry|url=http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-39563.html|website=Type Design Information|access-date=4 August 2017}}}} Gill Sans thus particularly achieved worldwide popularity after the close of the metal type era and in the phototypesetting and digital era, when it became a system font on Macintosh computers and Microsoft Office.{{cite web|url=http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/font.aspx?FMID=979 |title=Gill Sans MT in Microsoft products |publisher=Microsoft.com |access-date=7 January 2011}} One use of Gill's work in the United States in this period, however, was a custom wordmark and logo made by Gill in 1930 for Poetry magazine, based on Gill Sans. Its editor Harriet Monroe had seen Gill's work in London.{{cite web|last1=Gehl|first1=Paul|title=100 Years of Poetry: Designing the Magazine, 1912–2012|url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/articles/detail/69878|website=Poetry|publisher=Poetry Magazine Foundation|access-date=22 April 2016}}

File:BBC Broadcasting House, Belfast, October 2010 (02) (cropped).JPG Broadcasting House, Belfast, using GIll Sans. The BBC logo shown here was used from 1997 until 2021.]]

In 1997, the BBC adopted the typeface as its corporate typeface for many but not all purposes, including on its logo.{{cite web|title=BBC Commissioning: Credits and branding|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tv/production/articles/credits-branding-trademarks|publisher=BBC|access-date=9 May 2016}} Explaining the change, designer Martin Lambie-Nairn said that "by choosing a typeface that has stood the test of time, we avoid the trap of going down a modish route that might look outdated in several years' time".{{cite web|last1=Walker|first1=Hayden|title=BBC Logo: 1997–present|url=http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/bbc/corporate/1997.html|website=TV Ark|access-date=26 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151227153058/http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/bbc/corporate/1997.html|archive-date=27 December 2015|url-status=usurped}} This was not Gill's only association with the BBC, as he had designed sculptures and other artwork that are on display at the broadcaster's London headquarters, Broadcasting House.{{Cite web |last=Williams |first=Megan |date=2022-01-24 |title=Reckoning with Eric Gill's legacy |url=https://www.creativereview.co.uk/eric-gill-legacy/ |access-date=2022-03-04 |website=Creative Review |language=en-UK}} In 2017, the BBC began to phase out Gill Sans in favour of "Reith" (named after its first general manager John Reith), a proprietary corporate font family designed to be more legible on mobile devices, and did not require licensing for continued use.{{Cite web |last=Liptak |first=Andrew |date=2017-08-06 |title=The BBC is rolling out a new font designed for mobile screens |url=https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/6/16103904/bbc-reith-new-font-optimized-mobile-screens |access-date=2022-05-26 |website=The Verge |language=en}} The font was adopted by the BBC's corporate logo in 2021.{{Cite news |date=19 October 2021 |title=BBC reveals new logos in modern makeover|url= https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-58970323 |publisher=BBC News|access-date=20 October 2021}}

Former East Germany used a modified variant of Gill Sans Bold Condensed for their road signs prior to the German reunification in 1990.{{cite book |title=TGL 12096-1 Nov 1978 |publisher=Bundesinstitut für Bau-, Stadt- und Raumforschung |url=https://bauarchivddr.bbr-server.de/bauarchivddr/archiv/tglarchiv/tgl10001bis20000/tgl12001bis12500/tgl-12096-1-nov-1978.pdf |access-date=30 January 2024 |language=de |format=PDF}}{{cite book |title=TGL 12096-1 Feb 1987 |publisher=Bundesinstitut für Bau-, Stadt- und Raumforschung |url=https://www.bbr-server.de/bauarchivddr/archiv/tglarchiv/tgl10001bis20000/tgl12001bis12500/tgl-12096-1-feb-1987.pdf |access-date=20 January 2024 |language=de |format=PDF}}

Until 2022, the charity Save the Children featured Gill Sans in its logo and branding. Following increased publicity of designer Eric Gill's sexual abuse of his children and others, the charity rebranded, saying that it was "moving away from using the Gill Sans font."{{cite news|journal=The Times|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/eric-gill-save-the-children-chiefs-stop-using-font-designed-by-paedophile-artist-spjpkd2hz|title=Eric Gill: Save the Children chiefs stop using font designed by paedophile artist|first=Jake |last=Kanter|date=2022-01-15|access-date=2025-02-19}}

File:High voltage warning sign - British Railways Eastern Region (cropped).jpg sign. While the lettering is clearly based on Gill Sans, some letters such as the R are very different.]]

In 1930, the Sheffield type foundry Stephenson Blake released Granby, a commercial competitor influenced by Gill Sans, Johnston and Futura.{{cite book|last1=Howes|first1=Justin|title=Johnston's Underground Type|date=2000|publisher=Capital Transport|location=Harrow Weald, Middlesex|isbn=978-1-85414-231-3|pages=73–78}}{{cite book

|first=Roy |last=Millington

|title=Stephenson Blake: The Last of the Old English Typefounders

|publisher=Oak Knoll Press|pages=170–175

|year=2002

|isbn=978-1-58456-086-9

}} It was a large family with condensed and inline styles, and a diamond-dot design like Johnston. It also included a "Granby Elephant" weight influenced by Gill Kayo.{{cite web|last1=Jackaman|first1=Steve|first2=Ashley|last2=Muir|title=Granby Elephant RRF|url=http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/redrooster/granby-elephant-pro/|website=MyFonts|publisher=Red Rooster Fonts|access-date=15 February 2016}}

Another similar but more eccentric design was created by Johnston's student Harold Curwen for the use of his family company, the Curwen Press of Plaistow. Named "Curwen Sans" or "Curwen Modern", it has many similarities to Johnston as well, and was occasionally used by London Transport in work printed by the Curwen Press.{{cite web|title=Typefaces in use at the Curwen Press, 1952|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/36844288@N00/15610443584/|publisher=Curwen Press|date=1952|access-date=18 December 2015}}{{cite web|title=Curwen Modern|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/36844288@N00/5327223021|website=Flickr|date=5 January 2011 |publisher=Curwen Press|access-date=19 December 2015}}{{cite book|title=Curwen Sans type specimen|date=2012|publisher=An Endless Supply|url=http://old.anendlesssupply.co.uk/work/curwen-sans-type-specimen/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222163907/http://old.anendlesssupply.co.uk/work/curwen-sans-type-specimen/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2015-12-22|isbn=978-0-9570614-1-5}} Curwen described it as based on his time studying with Johnston in the 1900s, although it was not cut into metal until 1928, around the same time as Gill Sans was released, with a lower-case similar to that of Kabel. A digitisation by K-Type was released in 2018.{{cite web |last1=Bates |first1=Keith |title=Reviving Curwen Sans |url=http://www.k-type.com/reviving-curwen-sans/ |publisher=K-Type |access-date=9 October 2018}}{{cite web |last1=Bates |first1=Keith |title=Curwen Sans |url=https://www.k-type.com/fonts/curwen-sans/ |publisher=K-Type |access-date=9 October 2018}}

Several intended Gill Sans competitors were developed during the period of its popularity, but ultimately did not see mass release. Jan Tschichold, who would later make extensive use of Gill Sans while designing books for Penguin, created a similar design for an early phototypesetting machine, which was at the time seldom used but also since digitised.{{cite news|last1=Horn|first1=Frederick A.|title=Gutenberg on his Metal: c|url=http://magazines.iaddb.org/issue/CAI/1936-02-01/edition/null/page/42|access-date=12 August 2017|work=Art & Industry|date=1936|pages=42–3|archive-date=31 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190731164213/https://magazines.iaddb.org/issue/CAI/1936-02-01/edition/null/page/42|url-status=dead}}{{cite book|last1=Hollis|first1=Richard|title=Swiss graphic design: the origins and growth of an international style, 1920–1965|date=2006|publisher=Laurence King|location=London|isbn=978-1-85669-487-2|page=199|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7XO-LMDo4yQC&pg=PA199}}{{cite web|title=Tschichold|url=http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/presencetypo/tschichold/|website=MyFonts|publisher=Presence Typo|access-date=8 November 2015}} During the 1930s, Dutch type designer Jan van Krimpen, also a friend of Morison's, designed Romulus, a superfamilywith serif and humanist sans-serif companion: the sans-serif, with a low x-height, never progressed beyond test proofs. As mentioned above, Linotype began work in 1955 on a Gill Sans competitor, intended to be named "Magnus".{{efn|The name "Britannia" was also considered, but was abandoned due to Stephenson Blake's pre-existing Britannic design.}} Designed by German type designer Hermann Zapf with input from British Linotype manager Walter Tracy, the design was ultimately abandoned by 1963 due to lack of manufacturing capacity and changing tastes, although it too reached test proofs.{{cite book|author=Nikolaus Julius Weichselbaumer|title=Der Typograph Hermann Zapf: Eine Werkbiographie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f9VaCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT170|date=14 December 2015|publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG|isbn=978-3-11-041505-6|pages=170–3}}

File:Lowestoft Central sign straightened.jpg in British Railways standard lettering. The right-hand side of the legs of the "R"s are straight rather than Gill's smooth curve.]]

Besides similar fonts, many signs and objects made in Britain during the period of Gill Sans' dominance, such as the Keep Calm and Carry On poster, received hand-painted or custom lettering similar to Gill Sans.{{cite web|last1=Bustillos|first1=Maria|title=The Vicious Trademark Battle Over 'Keep Calm and Carry On'|url=http://www.theawl.com/2011/10/keep-calm-and-carry-on-trademark-fight|website=The Awl|access-date=15 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160301012125/http://www.theawl.com/2011/10/keep-calm-and-carry-on-trademark-fight|archive-date=1 March 2016|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|last1=Hatherley|first1=Owen|title=Keep Calm and Carry On – the sinister message behind the slogan that seduced the nation|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/08/keep-calm-and-carry-on-posters-austerity-ubiquity-sinister-implications|website=The Guardian|date=8 January 2016 |access-date=15 February 2016}} During the war, Fighter Command used a standard set of letters similar to it. Matthew Carter, later a prominent font designer, recalled in 2005 that his mother cut linoleum block letters based on it for him to play with.{{cite book|last1=Howes|first1=Justin|title=Johnston's Underground Type|date=2000|publisher=Capital Transport|location=Harrow Weald, Middlesex|isbn=978-1-85414-231-3|pages=71–72}}{{cite magazine|last1=Wilkinson|first1=Alex|title=Man of Letters|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/12/05/man-of-letters-4|magazine=The New Yorker|date=28 November 2005 |access-date=15 February 2016|quote=Carter, his mother, and his younger brother were able to take little with them, and no toys that Carter remembers. To teach him to read, his mother cut an alphabet for him from linoleum. "Gill Sans", he says, "a popular typeface of the time".}} Another little-known follower was the NEN 3225 standard lettering, a project by the Dutch Standards Institute to create a set of standardised lettering for public use in the Netherlands, comprising a sans-serif similar to Gill Sans and a companion serif font drawn by Jan van Krimpen. The project was begun in 1944, but was not published until 1963, and ultimately did not become popular.{{cite book|author1=G. Willem Ovink|title=Alphabet|date=1964|publisher=Kynoch Press|pages=123–130|chapter=NEN 3225: Dutch Standard Alphabets}}{{cite book|author=Jan Middendorp|title=Dutch Type|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sR9g5xPPJVQC&pg=PA298|year=2004|publisher=010 Publishers|isbn=978-90-6450-460-0|pages=298–9}}

The category of humanist sans-serif typefaces, which Gill Sans helped to define, saw great attention during the 1980s and 1990s, especially as a reaction against the overwhelming popularity of Helvetica and Univers in the 1960s and 1970s.{{cite web|last1=Coles|first1=Stephen|title=Questioning Gill Sans|url=http://typographica.org/2007/on-typography/questioning-gill-sans|website=Typographica|access-date=18 December 2015}}{{cite web |last1=Kupferschmid |first1=Indra |title=Gill Sans Alternatives |url=http://www.alphabettes.org/alternatives-to-gill-sans/ |website=Alphabettes |date=9 November 2012 |access-date=23 February 2019}}{{cite web |last1=Berry |first1=John D.|title=Not Your Father's Sans Serif |url=https://creativepro.com/dot-font-not-your-father-s-sans-serif/ |website=Creative Pro |date=22 July 2002 |access-date=24 February 2019}}{{cite web |last1=Berry |first1=John D.|title=The Human Side of Sans Serif |url=https://creativepro.com/dot-font-the-human-side-of-sans-serif/ |website=Creative Pro |date=5 August 2002 |access-date=24 February 2019}}

Modern sans-serif designs inspired by Gill often adapt the concept by creating a design better proportioned and spaced for body text, a wider and more homogeneous range of weights, something easier since the arrival of the computer due to the use of multiple master or interpolated font design, or more irregular and hand-drawn in style.{{cite web|last1=Butterick |first1=Matthew |author-link1=Matthew Butterick |title=Alternatives to Gill Sans |url=http://typographyforlawyers.com/gill-sans.html |website=Typography for Lawyers (archived) |access-date=7 August 2016 |quote=Gill Sans lit the way for other sans serif fonts that combine geometric precision with looser hand-drawn features, like Mr Eaves, FF Scala Sans, and FF Quadraat Sans.|url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150324044745/http://typographyforlawyers.com/gill-sans.html |archive-date=24 March 2015}} Jeremy Tankard's Bliss and Volker Küster's Today Sans are modern variations; Tankard commented on the genre's eclipse that his aim was to create "the first commercial typeface with an English feel since Gill Sans".{{cite web|last1=Tankard|first1=Jeremy|author-link=Jeremy Tankard|title=Bliss Pro|url=http://typography.net/fontfamilies/view/27|publisher=Jeremy Tankard Typography|access-date=18 December 2015}}{{cite book|author=Neil Macmillan|title=An A-Z of Type Designers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8lpJXXQPEqUC&pg=PA27|year=2006|publisher=Laurence King Publishing|isbn=978-1-85669-395-0|pages=26–7}} Rowton Sans is inspired by Gill but has a nearly upright italic, similar to that used by Gill in his serif font Joanna.{{cite web|last1=Coles|first1=Stephen|title=New Arrivals – December 2014|url=http://blog.identifont.com/show?SUO|website=Identifont|access-date=26 December 2015}}{{cite web|title=Rowton Sans|url=http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/fontyou/rowton-sans-fy/|website=MyFonts|publisher=FontYou|access-date=8 November 2015|archive-date=22 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170422124242/http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/fontyou/rowton-sans-fy|url-status=dead}} More distantly, Arthur Vanson's Chesham Sans is inspired by the British tradition of sans-serif signpainting, with many similarities to Gill's work.{{cite web|last1=Vanson|first1=Arthur|title=LHF Chesham Sans|url=http://www.letterheadfonts.com/fonts/cheshamsans.php|publisher=Letterhead Fonts}} Bitstream's Humanist 521 was an unofficial digitisation, to which its Russian licensee ParaType added a Cyrillic version in 1997.{{cite web|title=Humanist 521|url=https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/paratype/humanist-521-bt/|website=MyFonts|publisher=ParaType|access-date=22 April 2016}}{{cite web|title=Humanist 521|url=https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/bitstream/humanist-521/|website=MyFonts|publisher=Bitstream|access-date=22 April 2016}} SoftMaker and Fontsite also released Gill Sans digitisations under different names, including "Chantilly" and "Gibson".{{cite web|title=Chantilly|url=http://www.fontspring.com/fonts/fontsite/chantilly|website=FontSpring|access-date=3 May 2015}}{{cite web|title=Chantilly Serial|url=https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/softmaker/chantilly-serial/|website=MyFonts|publisher=Monotype|access-date=3 May 2015}}

More loosely, Syntax by Hans Eduard Meier is similar in some ways. Released in 1968 and praised by Tschichold, it was intended to be a more dynamic, handwriting-influenced sans-serif form.{{cite book|first1=Cees|last1=de Jong|first2=Alston W. |last2=Purvis|first3=Friedrich|last3=Friedl|title=Creative Type: A Sourcebook of Classic and Contemporary Letterforms|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mDhXoYIGTFAC&pg=PA148|year=2005|publisher=Inmerc|isbn=978-90-6611-250-6|pages=148–151}} Its italic is, however, more of an oblique than Gill's. Hypatia Sans, designed by Thomas Phinney and released by Adobe, was intended to be a more characterful humanist sans design.{{cite web|last1=Phinney|first1=Thomas|title=Hypatia Sans Pro, my new typeface|url=http://blog.typekit.com/2007/04/16/hypatia_sans/|website=Typekit Blog|publisher=Adobe Systems|access-date=2 May 2016}}{{cite web|title=Hypatia Sans Pro|url=https://www.fontspring.com/fonts/adobe/hypatia-sans-pro?refby=identifont|website=Fontspring|access-date=2 May 2016}} Many other fonts are influenced by Gill Sans to some extent.{{cite web |last1=Hall |first1=Emma Christine |title=When is #timesup coming for Eric Gill |url=http://www.thefrontispiece.com/blog/2018/1/16/when-is-times-up-coming-for-eric-gill |website=The Frontispiece |date=16 January 2018 |access-date=23 February 2019}}

File:1935 Monotype typesetter keyboard.jpg

A logical extension of the humanist sans-serif concept is the font superfamily: a serif font and a matching humanist sans-serif with similar letterforms. Martin Majoor's FF Scala Sans is a popular example of this influenced by Gill's work; others include Charlotte Sans and Serif by Michael Gills for Letraset,{{cite web|title=Charlotte Sans|url=http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/charlotte-sans/|website=MyFonts|publisher=Letraset|access-date=12 November 2015|archive-date=19 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170719213753/http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/charlotte-sans/|url-status=dead}} Mr and Mrs Eaves, by Zuzana Licko, are based on Baskerville,{{cite web|title=Mr Eaves|url=http://www.emigre.com/EF.php?fid=213|publisher=Emigre Graphics|access-date=12 November 2015}}{{cite web|title=Mr Eaves (pdf specimen)|url=https://secure.emigre.com/pdf.php?id=12|publisher=Emigre Graphics|access-date=12 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304104441/https://secure.emigre.com/pdf.php?id=12|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}} and Dover Sans and Serif, by Robin Mientjes, are based on Caslon.{{cite web |title=Dover |url=http://robmientjes.nl/work/dover/ |website=Robin Mientjes |access-date=23 February 2019}}{{cite web |last1=Papaelias |first1=Amy |title=Dover Text |url=https://typographica.org/typeface-reviews/dover-text/ |website=Typographica |access-date=23 February 2019}} Monotype itself released Joanna Sans in 2015, as a screen-optimised sans-serif font intended to complement (but not exactly match) Gill's serif design Joanna.{{cite web|last1=Boyd|first1=Natalie|title=Monotype's Eric Gill Series|url=http://www.howdesign.com/design-business/design-news/monotypes-eric-gill-series-classic-typefaces-digital-age/|website=How Design|access-date=12 November 2015|archive-date=2 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190402111403/https://www.howdesign.com/design-business/design-news/monotypes-eric-gill-series-classic-typefaces-digital-age/|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|last1=Weinzierl|first1=Terrance|title=Joanna Sans Nova MT|url=http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/mti/joanna-sans-nova/|website=MyFonts|publisher=Monotype|access-date=6 November 2015}}

File:ChesterfieldMPHandbill1950.jpg

File:National Railway Museum LNER Royal Station Hotel York Menu Breakfast 12th January 1940.jpg in York, 1940]]

File:Reklama2.jpg negatives) are in Gill Sans using the "continental" alternatives resembling Futura]]

In many countries, typeface designs are not copyrightable, and in others, such as the United Kingdom, the design is out of copyright after the 70 years have passed since Gill's death in 1940, when the metal type family had been essentially completed.[http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/part/I/chapter/III/crossheading/typefaces Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (c. 48), § 54] (England)[http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2000/en/act/pub/0028/index.html Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000] (Ireland), §§ 84–85. Accessed 31 January 2013.{{cite book|first1=Kal|last1=Raustiala|first2=Christopher|last2=Sprigman|title=The Knockoff Economy: How Imitation Sparks Innovation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ALlRz3JGjw4C&pg=PT130|date=15 August 2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-991176-9|pages=130–135}} That makes it legally permissible to create alternative digitised versions of Gill Sans, although not necessarily of later Monotype additions to the font, such as the book weight and euro sign. However, the name "Gill Sans" remains a Monotype trademark (no. 1340167 in the US), and therefore is not eligible to be used to name any derivative font.{{cite book|author=Lawrence D. Graham|title=Legal Battles that Shaped the Computer Industry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c6IS3RnN6qAC&pg=PA47|year=1999|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-56720-178-9|pages=47–48}}{{cite web|title=GILL SANS - Trademark Details|url=https://trademarks.justia.com/734/09/gill-sans-73409410.html|website=Justia|access-date=1 May 2016}}

No complete direct open-source Gill Sans clone has been released. One of the most extensive is Gillius, a derivative by the Arkandis Digital Foundry project and designer Hirwen Harendal, which includes bold, italic, condensed and condensed bold styles. It is not a pure clone, but rather is partly created by modifying Bitstream Vera and adds influences from geometric fonts that are particularly visible in the design of the "w".{{cite web|title=ADF Fonts|url=http://arkandis.tuxfamily.org/adffonts.html|website=Arkandis Digital Foundry}} K22, a foundry in Quezon City that is operated by designer "Toto G", has released two Gill Sans shadowed variants as K22 EricGill Shadow (digitising the Gill Sans Shadow 338 design) and K22 EricGill Shadow Line, an inline variant, for free for "personal, private and non-commercial purposes" and for sale for commercial use.{{cite web|last1=Devroye|first1=Luc|title=Toto|url=http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-41170.html|website=luc.devroye.org|access-date=14 December 2014}}{{cite web|author=Toto G|title=K22 EricGill Shadow|url=http://k22fonts.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/k22-ericgill-shadow.html|publisher=K22 Fonts|date=22 March 2014 |access-date=14 December 2014}} Sans Guilt, a direct clone of the medium weight, was released by Brussels open source design group OSP in 2011, but contains several obvious errors, such as misaligned "w" and "x" characters.{{cite web|title=Sans Guilt release|url=http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/foundry/wp-content/uploads/SANS_GUILT.pdf|website=OSP|access-date=7 September 2014}}

{{notelist|30em}}

{{reflist|30em}}

{{refbegin}}

• Carter, Sebastian. Twentieth Century Type Designers. W.W. Norton, 1995. {{ISBN|0-393-70199-9}}.
• Johnson, Jaspert & Berry. Encyclopedia of Type Faces. Cassell & Co, 2001. {{ISBN|1-84188-139-2}}.
• Ott, Nicolaus, Friedl Fredrich, and Stein Bernard. Typography and Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Throughout History. Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers. 1998, {{ISBN|1-57912-023-7}}.
• Ovenden, Mark. Johnston and Gill: Very British Types. Lund Humphries. 2016, {{ISBN|978-1-84822-176-5}}

{{refend}}

{{Monotype typefaces}}

{{OS X typefaces}}

{{Eric Gill}}

Category:Humanist sans-serif typefaces

Category:Typefaces with infant variants

Category:Typefaces and fonts introduced in 1928

Category:Monotype typefaces

Category:Display typefaces

Category:Typefaces designed by Eric Gill