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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.

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

Trade Gothic would be a better choice.

ChrisL

Another vote for Trade Gothic.

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Inventor of the DVD rewinder

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.

Thanks everyone, this is useful.

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.

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