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Top 10 Sans Serif Body Text Fonts

From Jacci Howard Bear,
Your Guide to Desktop Publishing.
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The crisp, clean, uncluttered lines of these sans serif fonts are periennial favorites that designers turn to again and again. Within each grouping are many varieties and renditions, some more suitable than others for body copy.

1. Helvetica

One of the most popular and confusing typefaces, this san serif font was originally designed by Max Miedinger in 1957. The introduction of Helvetica Neue brought some order to the chaos with more design consistency among the various weights that had developed throughout the 60s and 70s. Helvetica works well for many applications from body text to billboards.

2. Univers

Similiar to the ever-popular Helvetica, there are 21 typefaces in Adrian Frutiger's Univers family. The full range of consistently developed weights makes it a versatile sans serif font choice that mixes and matches well for text and display.

3. Frutiger

This clean, legible sans serif font from Adrian Frutiger was originally designed for signage but works quite well for text and display. It was drawn with a certain subtle unevenness that produced a font that is warmer, friendlier than Helvetica and other early sans serifs.

4. Futura

Longer ascenders and descenders than many similiar text sans serif faces plus its geometric consistency help give Futura its elegant and practical appearance. It comes in many weights and makes a handsome font choice for text and display use.

5. Franklin Gothic

A popular choice for newspaper work, the various weights give this sans serif font great versatility and the condensed versions maintain high legibility in tight spaces.

6. Optima

Hermann Zapf created Optima with tapered strokes that are almost like serif faces, but without the serifs. A classy choice for text and display use.

7. Gill Sans

Eric Gill's popular and highly legible sans serif font comes in several weights for both text and display use.

8. Akzidenz-Grotesk

Despite the "grotesque" name, this predecessor of Helvetica and Univers is a crisp, clean sans serif font that's a favorite among many designers.

9. Avant Garde

Drawn with geometric precision, it's a crisp, clean headline and body text font. The condensed weights are quite legible for text work as well.

10. Myriad

You'lll find a myriad of uses for this 1990s era Adobe Originals typeface. Robert Slimbach, Carol Twombly, and other Adobe staff had a hand in the design of this modern sans serif font.
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