Classic Sans

Classic Sans is the Mother of all sans typefaces.

Around 1880 Ferdinand Theinhardt designed this Grotesk for use in scientific publications. By designing his font for the Royal-Prussian-Academy of Sciences in Berlin Ferdinand Theinhardt received immediate acceptance and appraisal for his new typeface. His own foundry »Theinhardt Schriftgiesserei« published four weights. Five years later he sold his foundry to the Brothers Mosig and Oskar Mommen. In 1908 Mosig and Mommen was sold again. Check Wikipedia for details under Theinhardt.

In those days letters had to have serifs in order to be real typefaces. Sans typefaces of that time were not accepted as real typefaces, they were something weird. In German weird translates to grotesk! The font was used for Accidentien (small typesetting jobs), like leaflets, business cards, letterheads and so on. It was a weird font for small jobs. 

Last year in Berlin I found some type-samples of Theinhardts Grotesk in Erik Spiekermanns extensive library and was instantly dedicated to revive the original typeface with most of its inconsistencies. I added some weights and corresponding italic cuts with a light slant. I designed small-caps, all kinds of numbers as well as ligatures and currency symbols, I also added the necessary diacritics in order to make the typeface usable for most latin-writing languages.

Classic Sans 12-Pack contains the following cuts: XLight and XLight-Italic, Light and Light-Italic, Medium and Medium-Italic, Roman and Roman-Italic, Bold and Bold-Italic as well as Black and Black-Italic. The Medium weight is lighter than the Roman and can be used to typeset a lighter but sturdy body-copy. This packet is most useful for all kinds of jobs and will never let you down in terms of elegance and usability. It is a very good offer at the low 12-Pack price.

Enjoy this original font!