A modern German-language dictionary describes it as work such as advertisements and forms. Both words were everyday, descriptive terms for typefaces of the time in the German language.Īkzidenz means some occasion or event (in the sense of 'something that happens', not in the sense of a high-class social event or occasion) and was therefore used as a term for trade printing Akzidenzschrift was by the 1870s a generic term meaning typefaces intended for these uses. It has sometimes been sold as Standard in English-speaking countries, and a variety of digital versions have been released by Berthold and other companies.Īkzidenz-Grotesk is often translated into English as 'jobbing sans-serif', 'jobbing' in the sense of 'used for jobs'.

Its simple, neutral design has also influenced many later typefaces. Relatively little-known for a half-century after its introduction, it achieved iconic status in the post-war period as the preferred typeface of many Swiss graphic designers in what became called the 'International' or 'Swiss' design style which became popular across the Western world in the 1950s and 1960s. Originating during the late nineteenth century, Akzidenz-Grotesk belongs to a tradition of general-purpose, unadorned sans-serif types that had become dominant in German printing during the nineteenth century. 'Akzidenz' indicates its intended use as a typeface for commercial print runs such as publicity, tickets and forms, as opposed to fine printing, and 'grotesque' was a standard name for sans-serif typefaces at the time. Akzidenz-Grotesk is a sans-serif typeface family originally released by the Berthold Type Foundry of Berlin.

Akzidenz grotesk typeface free