The 10 most popular newspaper typefaces Dec 01 2006
20 comments Latest by Bruno Toffolo
The 10 most popular typeface families in American newspapers according to a study by Ascender Corporation:
1. Poynter
![]()
3. Helvetica
![]()
4. Utopia
![]()
5. Times
![]()
6. Nimrod
![]()
8. Interstate
![]()
10. Miller
![]()
Related: Newspaper Body Text [Design With Reason]
Got a web design project in mind? Find a web designer on Sortfolio. Browse by visual style, portfolio, budget, and geographic location.
Over 1 million people use 37signals' simple web-based software to collaborate on projects, track contacts, and organize their business with an intranet.
20 comments so far
Dave 01 Dec 06
I’m actually surprised Interstate isn’t higher on the list. It’s all over the newspaper here (The Oregonian) and on just about every other newspaper I happen to pick up when traveling.
Jeff Croft 01 Dec 06
Interestate is definitely popular. We use it in our print edition here in Lawrence. Can’t believe Trade Gothic didn’t make the list.
Interesting list. Thanks, guys!
Stephen Glauser 01 Dec 06
Very interestnig. Thanks.
Chris Johanesen 01 Dec 06
It would be very interesting to compare these results to a subset of the papers in the highest 10% by circulation.
Martin Ringlein 01 Dec 06
Now can someone put together “The 10 most popular typeface families in American news websites”?
I’d be curious how closely related the two mediums are or are not!
Kim Siever 01 Dec 06
Not in my newspaper. They use whatever face they want and each article uses a different one. I can’t wait until they grow up.
Stephen Glauser 01 Dec 06
Kim, what paper in Lethbridge are you reading that they are still using random typefaces? It’s a fairly large city, so I’m surprised by the amateurism.
Mike Higdon 01 Dec 06
I wonder what that says about my paper, the only one we use in that list is Utopia and it’s for our body text. I’m really surprised whitney isn’t on there, it’s got such a huge versatile family it’s rediculous. But it’s also a few thousand dollars, so maybe that’s why. We use Waulburn, whitney and Utopia and sometimes Champion (that one has a lot of personality for a big scary font of death).
wwws 02 Dec 06
now i know. Thanks for the info.
andrew_h 02 Dec 06
this is why i refuse to read newspapers… the gross negligence of Comic Sans in the newspaper industry
BillyG 02 Dec 06
Why does nobody see that that data is from 2004?
Su 02 Dec 06
BillyG: Are you implying the data isn’t relevant? Kim’s notwithstanding, exactly how often do you think newspapers change their font choices? Or was there some design upheaval in 2005?
Pramit Singh 02 Dec 06
What fonts does the NYT use in its InfoGraphics?
Scott 02 Dec 06
The newspaper I work for uses bookman for its text. I kind of like it.
harry 02 Dec 06
I suppose Trade Gothic is no longer used either – tool dated, what a shame
jon 03 Dec 06
Pramit: NYT uses a Franklin and a Helvetica light in infographics.
Sort of a weird survey, not distinguishing between text and display. And outsiders have to understand that the vast majority of publishers- the ones in small markets -use no-name copies of many fonts, dating back to the days when photo-typesetting was done on a dedicated machine and shipped with a standard set of fonts—including bootlegs of Helvetica et al.
(Sort of like the early days of Macintosh, when every newsletter trying to be stylish used the Palatino that was part of the set that shipped with the machine (Are you listening, Roll Call?)).
Andy 04 Dec 06
Isn’t it “The quick brown fox jumps over…” not “jumped over…”? Unless, I guess, he’s jumping over more than one lazy dog. Otherwise, there’s no “s”.
michel v 04 Dec 06
It was a very busy day for the quick brown fox, Andy.
Danny Sanchez 04 Dec 06
Hmmm… I wonder how Minion fared in the grand scheme.
Bruno Toffolo 07 Dec 06
Sylfaen would be a good one to put on the list. Even being a “common” font, I think it reminds me a newspaper when I’m reading something written using it.
Comments are closed