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Charcoal (typeface)
Encyclopedia
Charcoal is a sans-serif typeface
designed by David Berlow of Font Bureau
during the period 1994–1997. Charcoal was the default menu font
in Apple Computer's Mac OS
8 and 9, replacing Chicago
as part of the new Platinum interface. In Mac OS X
, it was replaced with Lucida Grande
as the system typeface. Charcoal is designed for high legibility, even at smaller point sizes, displayed on computer monitors.
While similar in design to realist sans-serifs, Charcoal has a distinctive organic quality. The letterforms have a high x-height, a vertical axis, and maintain generous counter-form in and around the letterforms. Descending characters, g, j, p, q, and y are shallow, compensating for the high x-height, and allowing for reduced leading in text. While designed primarily for monitor display, Charcoal has had considerable popularity in print, including in letterpress printing.
Virtue is a free TrueType
font of similar design sometimes used as a surrogate on non-Apple systems.
Typeface
In typography, a typeface is the artistic representation or interpretation of characters; it is the way the type looks. Each type is designed and there are thousands of different typefaces in existence, with new ones being developed constantly....
designed by David Berlow of Font Bureau
Font Bureau
The Font Bureau, Inc. or Font Bureau is a digital type foundry based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The foundry is one of the leading designers of typefaces, specializing in type designs for magazine and newspaper publishers....
during the period 1994–1997. Charcoal was the default menu font
Font
In typography, a font is traditionally defined as a quantity of sorts composing a complete character set of a single size and style of a particular typeface...
in Apple Computer's Mac OS
Mac OS
Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...
8 and 9, replacing Chicago
Chicago (typeface)
Chicago is a sans-serif typeface designed by Susan Kare for Apple Computer. It was used in the Macintosh operating system user interface between 1984 and 1997 and was an important part of Apple’s brand identity. It is also used in early versions of the iPod user interface...
as part of the new Platinum interface. In Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
, it was replaced with Lucida Grande
Lucida Grande
Lucida Grande is a humanist sans-serif typeface. It is a member of the Lucida family of typefaces designed by Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes. It has been used throughout Mac OS X user interface since 1999, as well as in Safari for Windows up to the browser's version 3.2.3 released on May 12,...
as the system typeface. Charcoal is designed for high legibility, even at smaller point sizes, displayed on computer monitors.
While similar in design to realist sans-serifs, Charcoal has a distinctive organic quality. The letterforms have a high x-height, a vertical axis, and maintain generous counter-form in and around the letterforms. Descending characters, g, j, p, q, and y are shallow, compensating for the high x-height, and allowing for reduced leading in text. While designed primarily for monitor display, Charcoal has had considerable popularity in print, including in letterpress printing.
Virtue is a free TrueType
TrueType
TrueType is an outline font standard originally developed by Apple Computer in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobe's Type 1 fonts used in PostScript...
font of similar design sometimes used as a surrogate on non-Apple systems.