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| 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 |
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.
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.