Agfa Monotype Announces Gill Sans as the Typeface for the 2004 Olympic Games.WILMINGTON, Mass. and SALFORDS, Surrey, England -- Agfa Monotype's Gill Sans Gill Sans is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Eric Gill in 1927-30. Gill was a well established sculptor, graphic artist and type designer, and the Gill Sans typeface takes inspiration from Edward Johnston’s Johnston (R) typeface The design of a set of printed characters, such as Courier, Helvetica and Times Roman. The terms "typeface" and "font" are used interchangeably, but the typeface is the primary design, while the font is the particular implementation and variation of the typeface, such as bold or italics , the sans serif Short horizontal lines added to the tops and bottoms of traditional typefaces, such as Times Roman. Contrast with sans-serif.  design created by Eric Gill Arthur Eric Rowton Gill (February 22, 1882 – November 17, 1940) was a British sculptor, typeface designer, stonecutter and printmaker, who was associated with the Arts and Crafts movement. in 1928 for the Monotype Corporation
Monotype Imaging, Inc Ltd., is the official typeface for the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad in Athens. "Gill Sans is a typographic See typography. work of art with a timelessness that's fitting for the Olympics," said Allan Haley, director of words and letters at Agfa Monotype monotype, type set by the Monotype machine. See printing. monotype or monoprint In art printmaking, a technique prized because of its unique textural qualities. Corp. "Mr. Gill could not have imagined how well this classic face has stood the test of time. Today, Gill Sans is equally at home on the computer screen as it is on the printed page." The Olympic committee's selection of Gill Sans was influenced in part by ancient stone-cut inscriptions, abundant in Greece. "The shapes of these letterforms, particularly the capital letters, are akin to those of Gill Sans," said Theodora Mantzari of the 2004 Olympic committee. "Gill was active in many different fields, from wood-engraving to sculpture, but he always proclaimed pro·claim tr.v. pro·claimed, pro·claim·ing, pro·claims 1. To announce officially and publicly; declare. See Synonyms at announce. 2. his love of one of his earliest skills, letter-cutting in stone, which he continued to practice throughout his life," wrote James Mosley, a visiting professor at the University of Reading in the UK, in his introduction to "Athens 2004 Olympic Games Olympic games, premier athletic meeting of ancient Greece, and, in modern times, series of international sports contests. The Olympics of Ancient Greece Although records cannot verify games earlier than 776 B.C. : the typeface." The book was produced by the Communication Office, Image and Identity Department, Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games. Considered to be the first successful sans serif typeface based on the humanist models of the Renaissance, Gill Sans offers a more pronounced contrast in stroke widths than most serifless fonts, resulting in a design that's been judged as more appealing to the eye, and ultimately more readable than monoweight alternatives. The typeface also allows for more information to be set in a given space than if using many other sans serif designs. As originally released in metal type, Gill Sans is a large family with some 36 derivatives. Many of these were created at Monotype, with input from Gill as a consultant to the design project. Today, digital versions are available for over two dozen of the original Gill Sans designs. The Gill Sans Hellenic fonts used in the 2004 Olympics include both Latin and Greek character sets. Cannibal Fonts, a company in Athens that distributes Agfa Monotype fonts, has produced the Hellenic extensions of Gill Sans for use during the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad. These extensions were designed by Hector Haralambous. Gill Sans is available from the Monotype(R) Classic Library. The typeface can be purchased from www.fonts.com, Agfa Monotype's Internet storefront for previewing, purchasing and downloading fonts. Fonts.com provides information about Agfa Monotype's custom font services, which are also detailed on Agfa Monotype's new Web site, www.customfonts.com. A sampling of Gill Sans projects for the Olympic Games may be viewed at http://www.agfamonotype.com/about/OlympicFont.asp. About Agfa Monotype Agfa Monotype Corp. is a global supplier of fonts, font technologies, printer drivers and imaging technologies. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary Wholly Owned Subsidiary A subsidiary whose parent company owns 100% of its common stock. Notes: In other words, the parent company owns the company outright and there are no minority owners. of Agfa Corp., the U.S. subsidiary of the Agfa-Gevaert Group, based in Mortsel, Belgium, one of the world's leading imaging companies with sales of 4.215 billion euros in 2003. Information about Agfa Monotype and its products is available at www.agfamonotype.com, www.fonts.com and www.agfamonotype.co.uk. Information about Agfa is available at www.agfa.com. All trademarks are the property of their respective holders. (C) 2004 Agfa Monotype Corp. All rights reserved. |
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