Charcoal (typeface)
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 the comparatively harder-to-read Chicago as part of the new Platinum interface. In Mac OS X developer preview 3, 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.
| Category | Sans-serif |
|---|---|
| Designer(s) | David Berlow |
| Commissioned by | Apple Computer |
| Foundry | Font Bureau |
| Date created | 1995 |
| Design based on | Chicago font |
| Variations | Virtue Truth Charcoal CY |
While similar in design to grotesque 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.