Trade Gothic
Trade Gothic is a sans-serif typeface first designed in 1948 by Jackson Burke (1908–1975), who continued to work on further style-weight combinations (eventually 14 in all) until 1960 while he was director of type development for Linotype in the USA. The family includes three weights and three widths.
Like many gothic fonts of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Trade Gothic is more irregular than many other sans-serif families that came later, especially later ones like Helvetica and Univers. This variety is often popular with designers who feel that it creates a more characterful effect. Its complex history has left it with several unexpected features: for instance in some digital releases the default bold weight is more condensed than the regular weight, the opposite of the norm, with a wider bold offered as an alternative.
Releases
Like many pre-digital fonts, cross-licensing has meant the original digitisation of Trade Gothic is available from a range of companies, including Adobe (14 styles) and Linotype (36).
