Karnak (typeface)

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Slab serif typeface

title: "Karnak (typeface)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["letterpress-typefaces", "typefaces-designed-by-r.-hunter-middleton", "geometric-slab-serif-typefaces", "ludlow-typefaces"] description: "Slab serif typeface" topic_path: "general/letterpress-typefaces" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karnak_(typeface)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Slab serif typeface ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Ludlow_Karnak_Type_Specimen_(15168564163).jpg" caption="Karnak Medium in metal type"] ::

Karnak is a slab-serif typeface designed by R. Hunter Middleton for the Ludlow Typograph company and issued in the period 1931–1942.

Karnak is a "geometric" slab serif, reflecting the style of German geometric sans-serifs (in particular Futura) which had attracted considerable attention in the United States and adapting the design to the slab serif structure. It copies the German geometric slab-serif Memphis. Middleton also designed a loose copy of Futura, the sans-serif Tempo, around the same time. It and other similar designs were popular in American printing during the hot metal typesetting period.

Like Memphis, Karnak's name, after the Karnak Temple Complex in Egypt, references the fact that early slab serifs were often called "Egyptians" as an exoticism by nineteenth-century typefounders.{{efn|Although, confusingly, the term was first used to refer to sans-serifs, and the earliest slab-serifs were often called "Antiques".{{Citation | url = http://typefoundry.blogspot.com/2007/01/nymph-and-grot-update.html | title = The Nymph and the Grot, an update | last1 = Mosley | first1= James |author-link=James Mosley | date = January 6, 2007 | accessdate = June 10, 2014 | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20140610132607/http://typefoundry.blogspot.it/2007/01/nymph-and-grot-update.html |archivedate= June 10, 2014

Karnak was an influence on the design of the popular 2009 slab serif Neutraface Slab. It is an adaptation of the sans-serif Neutraface designed by Christian Schwartz, influenced by Middleton's Tempo. Archer is another well-known modern geometric slab serif in this style with a less strictly geometric design.

Notes

References

References

  1. Allan Haley. (15 September 1992). "Typographic Milestones". John Wiley & Sons.
  2. "R. Hunter Middleton".
  3. "The revival of slab-serif typefaces in the 20th century". University of Reading (MA thesis).
  4. Neil Macmillan. (2006). "An A-Z of Type Designers". Yale University Press.
  5. "Scrambled Eggs & Serifs". Frere-Jones Type.
  6. James Mosley, ''The Nymph and the Grot: the revival of the sanserif letter'', London: Friends of the St Bride Printing Library, 1999
  7. Schwartz, Christian. "Neutraface Slab". www.christianschwartz.com.
  8. "Neutraface Slab". [[House Industries]].
  9. Schwartz, Christian. "Neutraface". www.christianschwartz.com.
  10. (2006). "Dot-font: Talking About Fonts". Mark Batty Publisher.
  11. "The Neutra Legacy". [[House Industries]].
  12. "Sentinel: historical background". Hoefler & Frere-Jones.
  13. "Know your type: Clarendon". IDSGN.

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letterpress-typefacestypefaces-designed-by-r.-hunter-middletongeometric-slab-serif-typefacesludlow-typefaces