Franklin Gothic - can it be a text face?

[dinazina]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

I'm in the process of making a text face comparision for non-designer colleagues, using familiar fonts bundled with various operating systems and programs. And also a few unfamiliar (to them) text faces for contrast.

I know Franklin Gothic is known as a newspaper & advert headline face, but since it also comes with a lighter weight, is it ever suitable as a text face?

To me it looks businesslike, certainly not elegant, but preferable to Arial, for instance.

Thanks in advance.

[speter]

I wouldn't want to read anything longer than a brief memo in Franklin Gothic.

[dezcom]

Trade Gothic would be a better choice.

ChrisL

[BruceS63]

Another vote for Trade Gothic.

-------------------------------------
Inventor of the DVD rewinder

[stoshio]

Franklin Gothic is perfectly suitable for text as long as you choose the right weight and point size. I use 9.5 pt. ITC Franklin Gothic Std Book Condensed for short articles and sidebars. I will choose it, News Gothic or Trade Gothic over Helvetica or Arial every day of the week.

[dinazina]

Thanks everyone, this is useful.

[kentlew]

Franklin Gothic works for short text, as others have commented. For longer text, I prefer News Gothic or Benton Gothic/Benton Sans over Trade Gothic. However, I haven't examined the Trade Gothic Next series, which might be improved.

Wouldn't really use any of them for extended reading. More like sidebars and box text.

[will powers]

I'm right there with Stan and Kent. I almost always use the condensed cuts of Franklin Gothic. It is one of my favorite typefaces.

powers