| Date: 1922 Designer:
Jakob Erbar Foundry:
Ludwig and Mayer Location:
Berlin, Germany Current equivalent:
Linotype Erbar Condensed See also:
Phosphor by the same designer, URW Erbar Mini Neo Technologies:
Metal (foundry)
Metal (machine)
Photosetting
Postscript | | Famous for:
First sans serif typeface drawn to a geometric rational.
Applications: Advertising and Display Ubiquity:
Average use Category:
Sans Serif Geometric Stress: Vertical
Serif: Sans Serif | | Design history:
An early geometric sans serif that predates Futura, this type is emblematic of Weimar-era Germany. Designed as a display and advertising face, Erbar was originally available as a regular width grotesk in four weights, with accompanying italics, and three weights of condensed face. Perhaps the real novelty lay with the three separately named display variants (all in uppercase only); Erbar Inline or Phosphor, Erbar Cameo or Lucina, and Erbar Outline or Lumina. All of them were strikingly elegant for such a utilitarian role, and sadly it is only two weights of the condensed that have come down to the modern day as digital fonts, although Phosphor survived separately as a display face. | |  |
