| URW Grotesk | |
| Style: | Sans-serif |
| Creator: | Hermann Zapf |
| Foundry: | URW |
| Creationdate: | 1983-7 |
| Releasedate: | 1987 |
URW Grotesk is a large sans-serif typeface family designed by Hermann Zapf for URW in the mid-1980s.[1] [2]
URW Grotesk is a sans-serif of mixed design, with influences both of geometric sans-serifs of the 1920s and 1930s, such as Futura and Erbar, as well as "grotesque" and "humanist" sans-serifs. Elements related to the geometric model include the "single-storey" letter 'a', based on a circle. Other elements are less purely geometric, and more based on classic serif typefaces, for example the 't' with a curl to bottom right and an angled stroke terminal, unlike Futura's 't' composed of two simple cross-strokes.[3] [4] Some ideas for the design germinated from "Magnus", a 1950s design for Linotype that did not reach release. Starting from Zapf's original designs, URW created an extremely large range of weights and widths by computerised interpolation and extrapolation.[5]
Florian Hardwig's obituary for Zapf described it as "not a typical design for him, utterly uncalligraphic...but it functioned wonderfully, of course."[6] [7] [8] It is the primary typeface used by the University of Nebraska at Omaha.[9] The design was originally intended for Axel Springer publications.[10] Zapf designed a serif companion font at the same time as part of the same (ultimately abandoned) redesign project, URW Antiqua.[11]