Folio Bold Extended - The Forgotten Typeface

[steviebaby]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

FBE seems to be the lost member of Konrad F. Bauer's "Folio" designs created between 1957-1962. It was used extensively by Universal Studios back in the late 60s to the mid-70s for various TV shows such as THE ROCKFORD FILES, BANACEK, McMILLAN & WIFE, McCLOUD, and COLUMBO (see attatched image). It was never available as instant lettering from Letraset but Letterpress put out a version of it in the late 1980s. I had a 24 pt. sheet but lost it before the wonders of Photoshop and Fontographer became available to me! I have tried many times to duplicate it as working font but original source material (a complete alphabet of a usable size)is impossible to obtain. It's very similar to Swiss Bold Extended but more elegant, in my opinion. Does anyone know why this beautiful typeface has never surfaced as a working font, or why it was removed from the "Folio" family to begin with? I'd be most interested in any and all comments.

[bojev]

I have a complete alphabet specimen of Folio Bold Extended in an old VGA catalog from 1976 - it is still in a VGA catalog of the early eighties but not as good print quality - contact me by clicking on my name above icon and clicking contact - I will e-mail you a 600 or 1200 dpi scan of the sample - it is 24pt appx.

[Uli]

"Folio Bold Extended" ("Folio breitfett" was the German font name of the German Bauersche Gießerei foundry) is contained as specimens (uc & lc, figures, and punctuation marks) in the book "Typos" by Ben Rosen, New York 1963, Reinhold Publishing, in the point sizes 48, 36, 28, 24, 20, 16, 12.

[bojev]

Steve, just found a good 36pt specimen in a collection of specimens I have from Adcraft Typographers from the 1960s - will forward a scan of that to you later, Bob

[Bleisetzer]

Folio-Grotesk breitfett
Bauersche Gießerei, Frankfurt am Main
Erstguß 1963
K.F.Bauer, W.Baum

It is still produced by "bauer types", barcelona.
And of course they still hold the copyright :-)

In Germany you can find in every second or third old letterpress company lots of cabinets full with it. Its not sold as good as Helvetica or Futura.

Georg

[bojev]

Checked Bauertypes.com and no Folio Bold Extended shown - why this font got dropped from inventory is still the question.

[steviebaby]

Guys, so sorry for taking so long to reply. I'd like to thank all of you for the information, and bojev - a special thank you to you for emailing me the FBE scan. I'm very grateful to you all. Regards, Steve.