Comments on: Typeface of the month: Gill Sans

By: Pairing typefaces in book design | David Airey, graphic designer

Pairing typefaces in book design | David Airey, graphic designer — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 11:35:49 +0000

[...] Caslon, Garamond, Palatino, and Sabon, combine well with other Humanist Sans Serifs such as Eras, Gill Sans, and Lucida [...]

By: scott romack aka shaggy

scott romack aka shaggy — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 12:31:45 +0000

I love gill sans. and helvetica. you keep on man.

By: Johnny Bacardi

Johnny Bacardi — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 10:25:20 +0000

I’ll always associate Gill Sans with Paul McCartney; most of his 70’s solo albums (and Wings albums, too) sported the font for lyrics, credits, and so on.

As a designer, I don’t care to use it a lot- it looks kinda undernourished in certain layouts sometimes…

By: Erik V.

Erik V. — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 01:52:22 +0000

I just put together some promotional materials with Gill Sans as the main font; I?m more than happy with the results.

It works (at least to my eye) very well as a contrast to Hoefler Text. But Gill?s italic capital C looks like it?s about to roll to the right!

By: Thomas Smith

Thomas Smith — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 10:14:26 +0000

I love Gill Sans myself, but I agree that its heavier weights are terrible. I’d kill for a nice bold, and doubly so for a demi. Wasn’t Monotype or someone releasing a Pro version? Probably just an Opentype version of the existing faces, though.

By: david Ford

david Ford — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 00:43:18 +0000

I agree with the love/hate relationship. I hate using them as they are everywhere but usually love the pieces once they’re finished. I have also loved pieces straight away only to ask upon further inspection… wait a minute is that gill sans….? huh… looks pretty good. Didn’t see that coming. Anyway, cool site. To quote the governator of California, “I’ll be back.”

By: Simon

Simon — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 23:22:57 +0000

It’s a really interesting discussion! I’m echoing a point that was raised eailer by a few people, it’s one of my favourite fonts (I have a clutch of 5 of 6 fonts that I always tend to use because they’re so versatile but have a slight personality/edge to them), but I wouldn’t dream of using any weight heavier than regular - it’s as if the bold/extra bold are entirely different faces altogether. The light weight is incredible, though.

Gill Sans is beggging for a redraw to address the bold problem - it’s amazing that it hasn’t happened; a foundry should step in and create a usable Gill Sans family with depth. ..

Thanks Mark, I never had a problem with the l/c a before. That’s going to bug me from now on!

By: Clive

Clive — Sun, 25 Dec 2005 13:40:26 +0000

Um, One Friday is actually on 24 *February* 2006.

But, back on topic - Gill Sans is one of the defining typefaces of the 20th century, and I think the ?a? is fantastic, as is the lowercase ?r?.

The thing about Gill that sets it apart from many of its contemporaries is that it is a humanist sans serif, and draws on Roman inscriptional forms too ? it wasn?t until Frutiger?s eponymous face in the 70s that someone could have claimed to have brought forth a face of the same calibre, and a humanist sans too.

Much of the really good type design of the 90s and early 21st century draws on these two groundbreaking faces, and arguably we would not have seen them otherwise.

By: Jeff Croft

Jeff Croft — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 02:42:39 +0000

I adore Gill Sans for almost any use in it’s lighter weights. However, the bolder variants feel sort of cartoon-ish to me, and I generally don’t like them. They can be appropriate for certain uses, but I feel like the bolder weights of Gill Sans keep it from being a great all-around font that can be used in amost any circumstance.

Still, I’m a fan. :)

By: Allan White

Allan White — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 10:38:14 +0000

One other way I like to think about type is a particular face’s “voice”. Is it aggressive? Calm? Complex or brutish? Loud or soft? Girly or masculine?

I try to visualize what a font “sounds” like sometimes when trying to choose. That “voice” can change again in various sizes and contexts.

By: Steven

Steven — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 10:34:04 +0000

What Operating Systems is Gills Sans standard on?

I use Gill Sans MT to draft my letters as I can read it nicely!