Bell Gothic
| Category | Sans-serif |
|---|---|
| Classification | Grotesque sans-serif |
| Designer(s) | Chauncey H. Griffith |
| Foundry | Mergenthaler Linotype |
| Date released | 1938 |
Bell Gothic is a sans-serif typeface in the industrial or grotesque style, designed by Chauncey H. Griffith in 1938 while heading the typographic development program at the Mergenthaler Linotype Company. The typeface was commissioned by AT&T as a proprietary typeface for use in telephone directories, and has since been made available for general licensing. Bell Gothic is designed for maximum legibility in the adverse conditions of small print on poor-quality newsprint paper, into which ink tends to absorb and spread out. It is therefore a popular font in printing at small sizes.
AT&T replaced Bell Gothic with Matthew Carter's typeface Bell Centennial in 1978, the one-hundredth anniversary of AT&T's founding.