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GT Super

GT Super typographic specimen

My girlfriend and long-time Stephen King superfan is a collector of vintage horror novels and memorabilia. My favorite past-time while she's rummaging through used bookstores is spotting all the old typography and the incestuous pastiche these book designers employed.

I think this kind of stuff is great.

This stuff is truly iconic — pick up any horror novel from that time, and you're likely to see what I mean.

Well, the Grilli Type Foundry is a fan too. Loads of ad men, book designers, newspaper editors and product designers typeset many a word in this in the 70's, 80's (and beyond). GT Super, was born out of admiration for Trooper Roman, Perpetua, and Times Modern:

We later found out that the typeface used in this advertisement, shown above, was some version of Perpetua Super — which lead us to GT Super’s name. The 1960s & 70s saw many such titling serifs created for the then-new phototype technology, and oftentimes quite different designs were marketed under the same name. Some of our favorite typefaces of that time are all the different versions of PerpetuaTrooper Roman, and Times Modern.

From the Gt Super specimen website
Ibid.
Ibid.

As alluring as the expressiveness of these high-contrast, titling serif typefaces is — these very qualities limit their utility for text usage. Additionally, most typefaces of the genre were designed in only a single weight. Our goal with GT Super was to expand on the unique traits of those designs while building a consistent typographic system. The Display styles, with their fine details, work best when used large, while the Text styles focus on body copy performance.

GT Super includes a text family and a display family, so it's use is pretty versatile. Between the alternates for descender characters and troublesome characters — this is a beautiful serif to play with.

GT Super Text
GT Super Display

I love the alternate descenders. The g's look like they're drawn straight from a quill nib. Very lovely. I prefer the italics in the display family over the text, but overall I think they're really neat.

From Grilli Type

Further Reading: